A Circus Freak
by Fancy Pants Penguin Jiao-Jie
Summary: The story of Ty Lee, her past, her time in prison, a look into her mind and heart, and an examination of her heroes and her dreams. This isn't your cookie cutter Ty Lee story, even if it is half Boiling Rock...just sayin' n.n. Rated T out of paranoia.
1. Gruel Night

**A/N:** Welcome to the first chapter my new story, I think I may have to do one about Mai after this...just to come full circle. I would love to know what any of you think, whether it's positive or negative (as long as it's constructive).

*throws another "ive" up there*

*8/21/10* Thank you to Red Clay for helping me edit this chapter, that's some darn good advice you gave =P.

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**Gruel Night**

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Ty Lee raised her eyebrows incredulously as the prison guard plopped a scoop of some kind of watery soup into her bowl. "Blech," she said, looking at the chunks of mystery food floating in it. It was the same thing that they had been eating every night for the two weeks since they were imprisoned.

"I guess its gruel night again." Ty Lee said cheerfully to the guard. She smiled and glanced up at the man's stony countenance and heard Mai groan beside her.

"Come on, Ty Lee," her friend said dryly, "E_very_ night is gruel night."

Ty Lee seemed to have a gift of ignoring her friend, though, and only continued, "Doesn't it get hot wearing all that armor?" She looked at the guard's heavy shoulder pads and iron helmet. "I mean, we _are_ inside a volcano. It doesn't seem very fair of them t—oof," But the guard never found out what wasn't fair of 'them'. The man standing behind Ty Lee bumped her, causing the small girl to nearly topple over and interrupting her ramble.

"You're holding up the line, Sweetheart," he said as he elbowed her out of the way.

The agile young woman swung her arms in a wide circle as she fell forward. She caught herself with her hands and gracefully pushed herself back into a standing position. She looked up with a smile to see Mai covered in her watery dinner, lips pursed in anger.

"Oops," Ty Lee said sheepishly, noticing her empty bowl on the ground beside her friend, so she turned to the prisoner who had bumped her. "Well excuuuse me," she said sarcastically, hands on her hips, with Mai fuming beside her, "I didn't _realize_ that anyone would be sooo eager to eat _this_ stuff." She kicked at her bowl and gestured to Mai's soiled red prison linens. The man chuckled and pushed Mai roughly out of his path as he left the food line, muttering about 'little girls.'

As Ty Lee watched the man walk away her bottom lip poked out in a pout. She thought about kicking the top of his spine, right where it met his skull; it would paralyze him from the neck down, but she looked at the guard who was still emotionlessly serving the soup and thought better of it. He wasn't worth the consequences, but Mai was one step ahead of her.

"It's about time _something_ happened around here," Mai said, starting to smile. Ty Lee quirked an eyebrow and looked at her friend, who pushed up her sleeves.

Then, the acrobat watched in shock as Mai rushed forward and skidded along the dirt ground beside the man, punching him in the back of the leg along the way and causing him to kneel. She let her momentum push her into a standing position and quickly struck him the man in the jaw with a roundhouse kick before he could even figure out what happened, and before the dust settled. The other prisoners in the food line were yelling cheers or threats and the noise was overwhelming.

"MAI!" Ty Lee yelled in a whiny voice as she ran up to her friend, but she was pulled back by a guard and Mai was grabbed by two more. The man who had pushed her was on all fours, looking dazed. He spat blood onto the ground and lifted a hand to hold his jaw. Suddenly, the roaring of the watching crowd stopped and the prisoners parted to make way for one of the senior officers.

"Take _him_ to the healer, take _her_ to her cell and leave her there until she realizes that being the Warden's niece doesn't come with the privilege of being able to attack other inmates at will," he ordered. When Ty Lee realized that Mai was going to be taken away, leaving her all alone, the girl panicked a bit. She imagined pinching the forearm of her captor. She would have felt her finger slide between the bones and right on cue his hold would go limp.

That would be her opportunity to twirl out of his grasp and land a quick jab in between his ribs, which would cause the man to double over in pain. It was a vital pressure point, if she hit too hard she could kill him but if she was careful he would just be incapacitated for a few hours. Next, she would bounce over to Mai in a series of leaps and cartwheels; in her imagination she was wearing a sparkly leotard. Ty Lee would hit one the guards holding Mai with a kick to the inside of his leg. It would cut off blood flow and he would fall then she could jab the other in the solar plexus and she and Mai would make a daring and exciting escape.

All of this happened in a matter of seconds, and just before she was about to execute her plan, Mai noticed the panicked look on her face. "It's alright, Ty Lee! It's just solitary. Spirits, calm down." This was followed by a characteristic eye roll and Ty Lee relaxed at the victorious smirk on her friend's face.

So, Ty Lee abandoned her impossible yet impressive plan and pouted quietly as the crowd was broken up and her friend was taken away. She wrapped her arms around herself as she was led back into her cell for the night along with the other prisoners; it was standard procedure after any kind of fight.

The guard pushed her roughly into her cell. Ty Lee fell, one of her palms caught on a loose rivet in the metal floor, cutting her. The young lady whimpered as the door slammed shut, blocking all sound from the outside. The lock slide into place with a big, hollow sound that made the girl's heart sink even lower, if that was possible. It was when she was in the courtyard with Mai by her side that she could put on her cheerful Ty-Lee-mask, but when she was alone in her cell each night it fell off and all she could feel was despair clutching at her heart; she knew that it made her aura dingy and pasty but she couldn't help it.

The acrobat crawled up onto her cold metal cot and sat legs with her pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around them. She looked at her hand, which had started to bleed, and let the tears flow, like they did every night. The cut wasn't deep, but she was afraid that it would get infected. In a panic she wondered if they would have to cut her hand off. She had a ridiculous vision of herself, with a wooden peg in place of her right hand, trying to do a handstand. But she did some of her breathing exercises to calm herself down, and slowly she pulled back from hysteria. Instead of panicking, she pushed her hand next to the cut to make it bleed more and clear out any infection.

_We're going to be stuck here forever. Azula is going to leave us here to rot and no one cares. Not my parents, my sisters, not anyone._ No one would dare stand up to Azula to plead for her release. Mai's uncle was the warden and even he didn't try to help them. She stared at her injured hand until the scab began to form.

With a sniff, she tried to wipe the tears away, and then fell onto her side. Ty Lee clutched her braid tightly with her one good hand; she left the other laying limp in front of her, afraid that she would open the cut again if she moved it. Stroking her braid was a nervous habit that had developed in her childhood and had now resurfaced in prison.

Ty Lee clutched her eyes shut and curled into a tight ball. She ran her hand along her hair and tried to think of a way that she and Mai would be able to escape. _Even if we beat up the guards how will we get out?_ Two days after the girls were imprisoned on the boiling rock the warden had announced to all of the prisoners that there was now a kill-switch on the gondola. With a flick of a lever, the cable would be released, sending anyone trying to escape to be boiled alive in the water below. _Besides, if we try to escape or if we start too much trouble we will probably just be executed instead._

Ty Lee was scared, more than she ever had been in her life as she slowly drifted into a fitful sleep, her braid still clutched tightly in one hand.


	2. Xiulan's Sister

**Xiulan's Sister**

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Ty Lee was five years old, and her mother was braiding her long hair in preparation for her first day at the Royal Fire Academy for girls.

"Make _sure _you bow to your teacher, just like your sister showed you, okay?" Her mother said nervously, "And sit up straight…_Don't fidget around,_" she added, pulling Ty Lee back into her chair when the little girl began leaning to the side in order to better reach the reptile-bird that her second oldest sister had gotten for her birthday.

Ty Lee sighed, she didn't know why it was such a big deal, after all, six older sisters had already gone to the same school; the oldest, Hsiu-Mei, had even graduated. After what seemed like hours to the little girl, her mother pulled her long hair up and tied the end to the same ribbon as she had started the braid with, creating a fold. "Alright, you're all done…OH wait, Sweety!" She said, but her daughter pretended she didn't hear and made her break for freedom.

Ty Lee jumped down from the chair and skipped away to gather her things while her mother chased her trying to straighten the collar of her uniform. "Get back here, Lien, er, Zi…I mean Ty Lee!" She shouted.

To which the girl yelled back something unintelligible, but which ended in, "…Cause I'm a dragon!" followed by a "RAAAAWWR!" as Ty Lee imitated the sound of breathing fire.

After 15 minutes of pretend fire bending and struggle, then a walk to school, Ty Lee was standing nervously in front of a large, intimidating, terra-cotta roofed building, watching other girls chase each other and laugh outside. Her sisters ran off to greet friends that they hadn't seen since the last school year ended, but the youngest daughter stood awkwardly next to her mother.

"Go on, Darling," her mother said, still sounding anxious, and gave Ty Lee a little push towards the door. The five year old looked at her mom, took a deep breath and began her trek up to the sliding door, "Make lots of friends!" Her mother called from the school yard.

That's what Ty Lee was afraid of, and it's what she thought about as the teacher read of lists of assigned seats in the class room; the woman's hands were shaking but Ty Lee didn't notice, she was too wrapped up in her own worries. What if she couldn't make any friends? Normally, she was a very exuberant girl, running, giggling and chasing her sisters, but in the presence of all the strangers, in the menacing new environment of 'school' Ty Lee folded inward.

"Ty Lee," the teacher called, and the girl took her seat at the appropriate desk, "You're Xiulan's sister, aren't you?"

"Yes," Ty Lee groaned inwardly, but on the outside she looked politely back at her teacher. What would she have to do to stop being just 'Xiulan's/Jing's/Fei-Yen's/etc's little sister'?

"You look so much like her," the teacher said, before returning to her list. Ty Lee waited until she turned away then stuck her tongue out. She heard a snort from the desk beside her and turned to see a thin pale girl with her hand over her mouth, trying not to smile.

_Now's your chance, Princess Ty Lee!_ She thought; in her imagination she was always a princess. "Hi!" She said brightly, "My name's Ty Lee, what's yours?"

"Mai," the girl said, lowering her hand.

"That's a pretty name, my sister's name is kind of like yours; she says Mai means beautiful. Well, one of my sisters. I have six; Hsiu-Mei is the oldest. You're a lot prettier than she is though, she has this—"

"Ladies!" The teacher said sternly, slapping the desk in front of Ty Lee with a wooden switch, making both girls jump, "It's time to begin; we do not speak during class."

The girls' eyes widened and Ty Lee clasped her hands on her desk the way her mother taught her and made sure to sit up straight, but when their teacher glanced away the two girls exchanged grins.

The entire class the Mrs. Cheng looked anxious; she kept glancing into the back as she spoke. Once, Ty Lee took a chance of twisting her head around to see where the teacher's eyes kept darting. There was a chubby, shy looking girl directly behind Ty Lee, off to the diagonal there was a very pretty girl with gold eyes, and behind her a tall, bored looking one. The only thing that the teacher could be looking at was the gold eyed girl boredly painting ink onto the edge of the ponytail of the girl in front of her, chin resting on her hand.

_Whaaat,_ Ty Lee thought, _Like 45 seconds ago Mrs. Cheng interrupted class to yell at Mai for not sitting up straight._ The teacher kept glancing back, so Ty Lee knew she must have seen the leaning _and_ the painting

"Ty Lee. Eyes to the front," the painting girl looked up to meet her eyes. Ty Lee saw her smile as she turned back to face the front. Soon she was lost in her daydreams, quickly forgetting to feel indignant at being scolded while the other girl wasn't.

By the time their mid-day break came, Ty Lee was melting from boredom. She had never had to sit still for as long as she did at school and it was driving her crazy. _FINALLY_ she thought as she bounded out into the school yard, followed by her new friend Mai, although with slightly less enthusiasm.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Ty Lee started, when they got outside. The girl seemed shy, and Ty Lee figured it was up to her to begin a friendship.

"No, I just live with my parents," the girl replied dryly, kicking at a spot on the ground.

"Ohhh you're so lucky," Ty Lee said, "All I get is hand-me-downs for clothes and everyone expects me to be just like my sisters." She rolled her eyes and leaned backwards, catching herself with her hands to make her body into an arch.

"Wow, how do you do that?" Mai said, looking excited.

Ty Lee let herself fall down onto the grass. "I dunno, just practice I guess. I'll teach you!" She said brightly. Mai knew it looked ridiculous to the other students, but she spent the rest of the lunch period trying to push her body up off the ground to make a graceful arc like Ty Lee; she just couldn't seem to get the hang of it and it ended up looking more like a little girl wiggling around in the grass. Ty Lee spent the rest of the time trying to help her, and although she giggled at her new friend's lack of flexibility, she was having fun, and Mai didn't seem to take it seriously, giggling along with her.

When break was over, the girls followed their classmates inside, still smiling, both happy that they had made a friend their first day.

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Ty Lee let go of Xiulan's hand the second they got inside and cartwheeled down the hallway to her father's study. She couldn't wait to tell her parents about her first day at school; but her mother found her first, looking just as eager as her daughter did.

"How was your first day at the Academy? Did you make any friends?"

"Yes!" Ty Lee smiled brightly, "The girl who sits next to me in class!"

Her mother smiled, looking strangely excited, "What is her name?"

"Mai, her father is a Governor and they live _right_ across from the palace! Guess what else! She's an only child!" The little girl bounced from excitement but her mom visibly deflated.

"Oh. Well that's great, Darling," her mother said, Ty Lee frowned in confusion and her bouncing dampened somewhat; "Do you have any homework?" Her daughter nodded, "Why don't you go into the courtyard and finish it?" She patted Ty Lee on the head and left her standing in the hall.

So the girl dragged her school bag out to sit on the ground beside an un-working fountain in their courtyard. They were nobility, but over the years their wealth had slowly dripped away to fund the war, and send daughter after daughter to the prestigious Royal Fire Academy for Girls. Now, they had no servants, and no one to tend to their mansion, so things were starting to get a little decrepit.

Ty Lee looked at the brush in her hand and the parchment spread out on the ground. She was supposed to be practicing calligraphy, but some of the characters looked like Dragons and some looked like moose-lions, one looked like a princess in a big ball gown; so soon the girl was using them to create an epic battle scene, forgetting her confusion at the way her mother was acting.

"Hello, Darling," she heard the kind voice of her father behind her, she smiled and turned, "How is the calligraphy going?" He asked, looking over his daughter's shoulder to examine her work. He quirked an eyebrow, "Rug is at the sword, dancing apple tarts?" He read, confused.

Ty Lee figured he couldn't see the pictures, so she giggled and explained how the princess had been drawing water out of a well when two boulders were thrown at her by Earth Benders. Then she ran inside to escape and a sabre-tooth moose-lion who she made friends with chased off the bad guys. She pointed to each character as she told her story and when she finished her father laughed out loud.

"Ohh, I see now, I sure am glad that apple was there," she giggled and he patted her on the head. "Keep up the good work," then her father headed back inside, leaving the girl to her dreaming.

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Fifteen year-old Ty Lee opened her eyes. _Still in prison,_ she thought, remembering her happy dreams.

She stretched out her legs and slowly unclenched her hand from her braid, flexing her cramped fingers. She rolled onto her back and looked at the small, barred window at the top of her cell. She wished with all her heart that the sun would at least shine in; she closed her eyes and imagined bright, dancing yellow rays of light and smiled. But, it wasn't real. Not even the sun could cut through the clouds of steam and ash that hung over the Boiling Rock.

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**A/N:** I hope you liked it! Push that button down there and tell me what you think!


	3. Egg Custard

**A/N: **First of all, I just have to say how awesome it is the first chapter had 1,588 words and the second had 1,855. Although I'm sure I screwed it up with this one...that had 1,230 before I started writing this author's note.

Second, thank you so very much to everyone who reviewed, I try to respond to each one. =]

Third and final, I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter, but I hope that all of you like it!

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**Egg Custard**

That morning, the usual stoic guard sloshed the usual disgusting food into Ty Lee's bowl. It was gruel day again. The sky was greyer than normal, and Ty Lee was having a harder time than usual trying to act like her perky self. She stepped out of the line and over to a steel bench at the edge of the yard, after only a weak smile to the food-guard.

Unbeknownst to her, he frowned behind his face-plate, disappointed that he didn't get to ignore any more questions about whether his helmet was hot, if he ever got tired of making gruel, or if they gave him any vacation time. She didn't know it, but the girl was the brightest part in the depressing day-to-day routine of the prison guard.

Ty Lee sat cross-legged on the steel bench, examining her meager meal with a sigh. Grimacing she took a few sips of it; it tasted almost as bad as it looked, but for the sake of the growling in her stomach she drank all of it. "Blegh," she said, with an involuntary shudder.

Without Mai there, she felt alone and vulnerable; not that Ty Lee couldn't take care of herself. She knew that if anyone tried to touch her, a couple of quick jabs in various parts of the chest and they'd be on the ground before they knew what happened. But she did miss her friend. One of the things that had kept her from letting herself give in to the despair of being locked up for the rest of her life, was knowing that her best friend was there with her and together they could make it through.

But now Mai was gone for who knows how long, _all because of that stupid guy,_ she thought, glaring at the man in question across the prison yard. Ty Lee imagined herself tossing her food bowl aside, jumping up, and performing a round off triple back handspring over to the man before kicking him in his already injured jaw. The Jerk in her imagination was on the ground whimpering while the Imagination-Ty-Lee was grinning, standing over him with her hands on her hips, her loose hair blowing in the wind.

She was distracted from her fantasy when the steel door at the side of the yard was opened and two girls were led in, dressed in the red linens of the prisoners. "New transfers," a guard explained to another who was watching the door, "Overcrowding at the Capital City prison."

Ty Lee snorted when she realized who they were. _Overcrowding. Right,_ she thought, _more like Azula thought it would be funny to lock the Kyoshis up with us and see what they do._ Ty Lee watched the girls wander in and take in their surroundings, staying close together. She knew that people must have thought it was silly for the princess to order two prisoners of war to another location for seemingly no reason, but Azula's word was as good as law these days.

Ty Lee could still visualize the look on her former friend's face when she rushed to Mai's aid. It was a look of pure shock, but also something else. Azula's gold eyes were wide and her mouth was partially open, but then her eyebrows knitted for an instant and Ty Lee swore she saw hurt flash across the princess' face to be quickly replaced by anger. Ty Lee didn't even think that day, she just reacted; Azula was going to hurt Mai so she did what she had to do to help her very first friend, even if it was at the expense of her second.

It was hard for the girl to believe that Azula could be hurt, and it was even harder for her to feel sorry for her while she was the one who had thrown her in this place. But Ty Lee was a naturally kind soul, and she pulled her knees up to her chest, leaning her chin on them and looking away from the Kyoshis and down at the scab on her palm.

She sighed heavily, and ran her braid through her hands. Ty Lee had always had the habit of getting lost in her own day dreams and fantasies, and it came in handy in a place like this. All of her dreams as a little girl had unintentionally prepared her to be locked up with nothing to focus her mind on and no hope for the future, so she slipped back into her thoughts. As Zuko had said on the beach, it felt like years ago now, she lived in her own little Ty Lee world.

Maybe a boy would come to her rescue, just like that cute Water Tribe boy had done for his girlfriend. She was trying to think of what his name would be, where he was from and what color his eyes were when someone lightly tapped her shoulder. She looked up to meet the eyes of the Soup Guard, partially hidden by his helmet. He picked up her food bowl from the bench beside her at the same time that he slipped something wrapped in cloth into her hands. She took it, not knowing what else to do and he left without saying a word.

Ty Lee turned casually away from the center of the courtyard and slid off of her bench to sit on the ground on the other side of it as though she was too depressed to go on; then she slowly unwrapped the cloth bundle. Inside was a fresh egg custard tart. Her face lit up into her standard, wide grin and she twisted around to see the guard. She couldn't see, but behind his faceplate the corner of his mouth was tilted up in a small smile.

She ate it in three, gigantic bites savoring the crumbly crust and buttery filling, then instantly felt guilty that Mai couldn't be here to share it with her. She loved tarts. As she was picking off the last of the crumbs, she heard a female scoff from beside her.

It was one of the Kyoshis, "What did you have to do to get _that_ little favor?" She said then added quickly, "Nevermind, I don't want to know," she held up one of her hands and made a disgusted face to emphasize her point.

Her friend laughed and then she spoke, "We didn't expect to find you of all people here. Where's your gloomy friend?" But Ty Lee didn't answer, she was still trying to figure out what the first girl meant and they left Ty Lee sitting there with a confused look on her face. By the time she figured it out was too late and they were gone, figuring they won after her long silence.

She blushed, feeling stupid and ran her hands over her braid. Being friends with Azula for so long had taught the girl to brush off sarcastic remarks like that one but it still stung. The damage was done, and although she was still very grateful for SoupGuard's kind gesture, the despair was back. So, she busied herself by folding the napkin into a swan and placing it on the bench behind her. She then pulled her legs back up and buried her face in her arms, returning to her daydreams until dinner followed by the demoralizing walk back to her cell.

_Maybe Mai will be back tomorrow,_ Ty Lee thought hopefully.


	4. Lily

**A/N:** Well I hope you enjoy this! It is more of a segway chapter, but I still liked it, also I think it should be pretty clear that it is another flashback (how the heck do you spell segway if that's not right? Seriously, let me know xD). Thank you so very much to everyone who has reviewed this story, it makes me very happy to get feed back.

I may have another chapter up tonight if I'm not totally beat after I finish my homework. One more thing...at work I processed the file of a girl who's middle name is Maiko. Not even kidding.

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**Lily**

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"It's just not fair!" Ty Lee shouted, throwing her arms up and turning to Mai as soon as they were out of Mrs. Cheng's earshot.

"What isn't?" The other girl asked, automatically heading towards the monkey bars, which Ty Lee had decided the second day of class was the best part of the playground. Ty Lee had a habit of pretending the ground was lava, or that she was trying to escape a dragon (sometimes, when she couldn't hear, Mai said she was obsessed with dragons), and the monkey bars were the best backdrop for her games.

She usually made Mai take turns with her, being the dragon or the lava monster while the other tried to escape, but the quieter girl would have preferred to just sit on the ground and read. She didn't like all of the other kids staring at them; as fun as they were, Ty Lee's games weren't exactly quiet or inconspicuous.

"You were there! You saw!" Ty Lee huffed and flipped upside down, hanging by her knees. She let her arms dangle down and could feel her braid tickling the ground near where Mai sat cross-legged.

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The same girl with gold eyes who had put ink in the other girl's hair was burning something into her desk. Ty Lee turned around after she caught whiff of the faint smell of wood smoke, to see her tracing one finger along the surface of her desk in some kind of design, a thin trail of smoke following the tip of her finger.

Ty Lee wasn't a fire bender. Nonetheless, she still knew that it wasn't allowed until a student had learned to control it because it could be dangerous, and it certainly wasn't allowed at school. _Plus, she's ruining her desk!_ She thought. Ty Lee glared and thought about raising her hand to tattle, tapping her fingers on her desk as she weighed her options; but the other girl beat her to it.

Goldy, as Ty Lee had dubbed her, glanced up and their eyes met. There was a pause in which Goldy watched her tapping and Ty Lee watched the desk burning; then Goldy grinned evilly and her hand shot into the air, soot still covering her forefinger.

"Yes?" Mrs. Cheng said. She had calmed down significantly since the first day of class; she no longer shook, or glanced in the back and Ty Lee chalked it up to first day nerves.

"Well, _I _was trying to pay attention along with the other students," Goldy started, her voice overly sweet and her eyes wide and innocent, "But _she's_ making that tapping noise and I just can't pay attention. It's really distracting my learning." She motioned to Ty Lee as she spoke. The eyes of the latter widened and she turned to face Mrs. Cheng.

"Ty Lee I've told you over and over again to face the front and sit still. I can't have you distracting the other students. Come sit at the front desk." She said, pointing to a desk directly next to her own which faced the rest of the class.

Goldy grinned at her as Ty Lee gathered her books and sulked up to the front desk. She slumped into her new spot, pouting and glared at the girl while Mrs. Cheng continued her lecture directly in front of her.

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"I _always_ get in trouble for stupid things but she doesn't get in trouble for anything! She was fire bending _and_ burning her desk, but all I did was turn around." She whined.

"Well you know why, don't you?" Mai asked. When Ty Lee's face contorted and Mai could swear she saw a giant question mark over her head, she went on, "That's Princess Azula; if Mrs. Cheng scolded her all the time she'd probably lose her job."

Ty Lee's face lit up, "Nu uh!" she said, "A real live princess! I always wanted to meet a real princess!"

Mai cocked an eyebrow an tried to keep from laughing, "Yeah, FireLord Azulon's granddaughter, but I thought you hated her cause you get in trouble but she doesn't?"

Ty Lee swung elegantly off of the monkey bars, landing on her feet and twirling into a sitting position across from Mai. "That was before I knew she was Princess Azula! How do you know it's her?"

"My mom wanted me to be friends with her," Mai drawled, picking at the grass, "She thinks it would be good for Father's political career."

Ty Lee remembered her mother's strange behavior the last several days. She'd gotten so excited when she heard she made a friend, then suddenly disappointed when she found out that it was Mai. The second day of school, when Ty Lee had excitedly explained the game that she had played with Mai that day, her mother told her that she should try to make other friends too. Now she understood; _her_ mother wanted her to be friends with Azula just like Mai's did, and she wondered vaguely how many other young noble girls were under similar orders from their parents.

Ty Lee realized that Mai was giving her that raised eyebrow, head slightly turned to the side look that meant she'd done something extremely stupid. It was the look her sisters gave her when she accidently said one of her thoughts out-loud or slipped into her daydreams while they were talking.

"Huh?" she said, snapping back to reality.

"I dunno, you had this weird look on your face like you were watching something behind me that was really far away. So I turned and looked and nothing was there, and then I asked you what you were looking at." Mai said this all very slowly.

"Oh, I was just thinking," Ty Lee said with a wave of her hand, blushing and feeling dumb. Would Mai still like her?

"Did it hurt?" Mai asked.

Ty Lee felt her heart sink; she was so tired of people thinking she was stupid. Then, she noticed the good natured smirk on Mai's face and she broke into a grin before she pushed her friend's shoulder lightly, both of them laughing. "Just a little," she said.

"But yeah, I don't really want to be friends with someone just because they're a princess. It seems kind of stupid," May continued, and both of them turned to look at the girl in question, who was playing Kuai ball across the school yard. One of the girls served very lightly in Azula's direction, who easily hit it back. The princess looked disappointed, and it was even obvious to Mai and Ty Lee across the yard that the girls on the other team were purposely going easy on her.

Azula frowned at another gentle serve and then almost instantly her face changed, it went from pure boredom, to irritation, to mischievous in a second. Instead of hitting it back with a light tap to match the other team's pace, the princess spiked the ball at the girl, who jumped to the side, only narrowly avoiding a bloody nose.

Mai sighed heavily. Ty Lee took the hint, "Wanna be the princess this time and I'll be the dragon!" she asked. Mai stared at her blankly, but Ty Lee jumped up, smiling."Okay then, you can be the dragon," she leapt onto the monkey bars. Mai sighed even more dramatically but stood up as well.

"Rawr," She said dryly as her friend giggled and swung along above her, both of them forgetting about the real princess.

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As the other students gathered their things, Ty Lee purposely took too long. She still had to sit at the front desk after break, but she pretended that she forgot something inside her regular one, rummaging through it and waving goodbye to Mai. Soon, the class was empty except for Mrs. Cheng who was watching her.

"Ty Lee? I have to meet with the headmaster soon, you need to hurry along and find your sisters."

"Yes ma'am," Ty Lee said. She bowed, purposely dropping her brush a she did so. Just like she hoped it rolled off to the side, and as she bent to pick it up she sneaked a glance at Azula's desk. Growing down out of the corner, it's vine swirling around the edge of her desk, Azula had drawn a fire lily.


	5. Roll Call

**Roll Call**

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Ty Lee opened her eyes. Suddenly, the bright, colorful world of her dream was gone, and she found herself in the grey reality of her Boiling Rock prison cell. She heard the doors being unlocked and she sat up rubbing her eyes. It had been such a nice dream. She was in the circus again; she was on the tight-rope and everyone was cheering for her. There were so many vivid colors and everyone was so happy, but the harder she tried to remember details of her dream, the faster it seemed to trickle away.

Ty Lee stepped up to her door and waited for it to open. It was roll call; it happened every week. Prisoners would stand outside their cells and a senior officer would go around, taking their numbers. After that it would be back inside the little eight by ten room that had become her home.

Three days ago two men were seriously burned in a fire bending fight in the yard, and as security against riots the entire prison had gone on lock down. Ever since Zuko and his friend, (_that cute boy with the boomerang,_ Ty lee thought) had used a riot as a distraction for their escape, the warden had taken extra security measures to prevent anyone from attempting such a thing again. For this reason the entire island was locked up tight; no one was allowed out of their cell for anything, except for the measly 15 minutes that it took for the guard to walk down one row of prisoners.

She wasn't sure how Mai could have been able to handle this for as long as she had, but Ty Lee was doing her best to keep her hopes up that after this lock down ended, Mai would come back as well. Sitting alone in her cell at night (or in the day, as it were) the acrobat's overactive imagination would kick in, and she found herself wondering if Mai was even still there. What if they had taken her away altogether? What if Mai had gotten sick and died? What if she was executed, or worse? But after some yoga stretches and breathing exercises she always managed to push her fears down and keep telling herself that everything was okay.

_If you make sure to keep a positive attitude, positivity will find you. A negative attitude only finds negativity._

Ty Lee could almost hear the voice of her old gymnastics teacher. She knew that the woman had been talking about performing: If she visualized herself succeeding then she would succeed, but if she imagined herself falling, she would fall. However, the girl didn't see any reason that that couldn't also apply to being locked up in prison for the rest of her life. After all, she had made sure to be nice and polite to SoupGuard and that had earned her a free egg custard tart.

So now as the middle aged man came around to take her name and number, she smiled at him and said thank you before she stepped back into her cell, the guard shutting the door behind her.

"That was weird," she heard the female guard who was with him say.

"I know, one or two always go crazy during the lock downs. No contact, ya know?" He said to the woman, then "Name?" to the next prisoner.

Ty Lee frowned, "I'm not crazy! I'm just being nice!" She yelled out the little slit in her door, her bottom lip poking out in a pout.

"Yeah, yeah, we know," the female guard said before sliding the metal plate over the opening. Ty Lee fumed. _That backfired,_ she thought, taking a deep breath to calm her anger.

* * *

After exercising, stretching, walking in circles because her legs were sore from sitting, attempting to hang upside down from the little barred window at the top of her cell wall, practicing her fighting on an invisible attacker, taking down her braid and looking for split ends, and then stretching some more, Ty Lee was laying on her cot, bored stiff, so she began counting the rivets in her ceiling. Soon, (around the time she got to 3480) she was in a very light, fitful sleep having been tired out from her exercising.

It wasn't a normal nightmare. It was more of a feeling than anything, she felt like she was drowning and spinning. For some reason she was very, very anxious about something, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. She saw Mai being taken away, and Azula's wicked grin. She saw the only time she had ever met FireLord Ozai, when he was in his throne behind the wall of flame and she was kneeling on the ground, terrified.

When she jerked awake, gasping, the nightmare slipped away in exactly the same way as her good dreams. All she could remember was fire, panic, and a vague memory of her mother.

The sun was setting and the grey light was turning into an eerie shade of orange as the sunset tried to peek through the clouds of ash and steam. Her steel cell was bathed in dingy, reddish light. It made Ty Lee feel anxious, like in her dream. She didn't like the orange glow it and she felt panic rising up.

_I'm _not_ going crazy. That guy doesn't know anything,_ she told herself.

After a few seconds of panic she realized that she wasn't alone. SoupGuard was standing, frozen in shock at her sudden awakening, with her cell door partially open, and her dinner bowl in his hand.

"Are you okay?" He asked. It was the first time she'd ever heard SoupGuard talk. Despite herself, Ty Lee thought it was a bit funny that no matter how many questions she asked him he didn't speak, and yet when she stopped trying he did it on his own.

"Yeah, I'm great. I just had a nightmare that's all," she smiled, but she could even feel that it was forced. Hopefully the menacing orange light prevented him from seeing the anxious look and painted on smile as she took the bowl from him.

He turned to leave and then stopped in the doorway. "They say that nightmares are a good thing," he said softly. His voice was so much different than she thought. For some reason she had expected scratchy and scary, like the man who used to clean up after the platypus bear at the circus. But SoupGuard had a clear, deep… surprisingly normal, sounding voice.

"How so?" She asked, looking at her pitiful dinner. She pondered asking for another tart, but thought it might be overkill.

She didn't know it but he had been by last night too, on dinner rounds. It was only the second full day of the lock down and of him hand-delivering meals and when he pushed his cart past her cell to refill the gruel vat he could hear her sobbing behind the door. It broke his heart to think of this happy, spirited girl as becoming one of the many empty, shattered shells that wandered around the prison, so he said the only thing he could think of to help. "Because when you have nightmares it shows that you still have fears, and that you're still striving to live. It shows you're still thinking and worrying about the future. Hopeless, broken people don't have nightmares so it's when you stop that means you've given up."

Her smile became a little bit less forced, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," But he paused again, a small smile on his lips, "And yeah, it does get pretty hot in this helmet."

This time, when she heard her cell door lock with a small clang, Ty Lee was smiling in earnest.

* * *

**A/N: **I thought of this idea while I was kinda sorta doing my homework earlier and had to put it in there. That seems to be how my stories go; a definite idea that gets filled up with other mini-ideas that I just love too much to not write.

I know how lame OC's can be, but I just love my SoupGuard.

OH Also I halfway borrowed the dream idea from a book called "The Road" but I don't remember who it's by and I'll let you do the Googling if you want to read it. Don't wanna take credit for that brilliant idea =P.

(hearts)


	6. The Tight Rope

**The Tight Rope**

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**

"You can't move that there either," Hsiu-Mei said, starting to get frustrated with her little sister. They were sitting near the corner of the courtyard in the shade of a blooming cherry blossom tree.

"Why not?" Ty Lee asked, examining the boat piece. She really _had_ been paying attention when her oldest sister told her that that piece could push others one square back.

"Because you can only do that if the space behind it is empty," she huffed, pushing Ty Lee's boat as well as her own two pieces back into place. Ty Lee frowned and stared at the Pai Sho bored. She could never understand how to play this game. There were just too many pieces and she never had enough concentration, but she tried nonetheless, if only to prove that she could.

This time the little girl pushed her lily next to Hsiu-Mei's white jade creating a harmony. She smiled, "I knew that one," she said, "So that's a point for me!"

Hsiu-Mei only sighed. "No, it's not. You can't move the pieces that are next to my rock. I told you that a hundred times, Ty Lee," She groaned loudly, sweeping the pieces off the board and into the little box that was sitting beside it. She fllipped her long braid over her shoulder and looked down her nose at Ty Lee, "Just forget about it, I should have known you were too little to play Pai Sho."

"I am not little!" Ty Lee squealed, hitting the now clear board. She could feel a tantrum coming on; she was so tired of her sisters treating her like she couldn't do anything or that she was stupid. The five year old was aware that was not as good as them at the stiff, boring traditional dances of the Fire Nation, she may not have been able to pay attention to things for a long period of time without zoning off, and she may not be able to remember things she learned in school, but Ty Lee knew that she was _not _ stupid and that she could learn to play Pai Sho if she just had more practice. Luckily, her father interrupted the approaching temper-tantrum with what Ty Lee would later regard as the best news of her life.

"I've been looking all over for you girls. If we don't go now the circus is going to start without us!" He waved for them to follow him. Ty Lee waited until he turned away, then kicked her sister in the shin and ran off to catch up with their father.

"OUCH, ugggh you little-" Hsiu-Mei yelled as she ran after her giggling sister.

* * *

Ty Lee's jaw dropped. She was on the edge of her seat watching a woman stand on the back of an ostrich horse as it raced around the edges of the ring. She looked so graceful and her balance was perfect despite the ridiculous speed of the beast below her. The woman spread her arms and extended one leg out behind her. Ty Lee cheered with the rest of the spectators sporting a huge grin that seemed to have been stuck, permanently, to her face when the show started.

The little girl couldn't help but jump out of her seat and run up to look over the balcony when the woman came around, smiling and waving to the crowd. She stood on her tip-toes to peek over the railing and looked on in awe as a man rode up on a second ostrich horse until he matched the woman's pace. When they were side by side he jumped into a standing position placing one foot on each animal. In one fluid motion he was holding her over his head; her arms were out to the side and from Ty Lee's position it looked like she was flying.

Ty Lee bounced up and down, clapping and was more than slightly disappointed when the two of them made one final lap around, then ran straight across the ring and disappeared through the curtains in a blur of yellow costumes and brown ostrich horses.

Ty Lee watched, somewhat less interested, as a man created a dragon out of fire. It was impressive, but living in the Fire Nation she had seen plenty of fire bending. What she hadn't seen was someone standing on a fast moving animal. She wanted more excitement and danger and impressive stunts; a wish that was granted when the tight rope walker had her turn.

She watched, transfixed as a woman in a short, silky red dress tiptoed slowly onto the wire. The lights had been dimmed and musicians were playing a soft tune below. The woman opened two gold fans that glimmered in the low light and gradually worked her way across the wire, with soft, gentle steps, and small twirls, her fans reflecting little sparkles onto the audience with each turn. With every lunge and each time the woman stood on one foot Ty Lee's heart jumped, but she knew that the tight rope walker wouldn't fall. Finally she reached the other side, and bowed to the roaring audience.

Ty Lee was disappointed when the ringmaster came back out and thanked everyone for coming then proclaimed that he hoped everyone enjoyed the show. She sulked back up to her family who were still in their seats and snagged one more handful of fire flakes from Jing, chewing sadly as she replayed the night's events in her mind.

"Did you enjoy the show, Lien?" Her father asked her, not really looking as she walked up; he was busy helping their mother gather her cloak.

Two little girls shot identical glares at their father, one from the seat two over from him, and one from the aisle. Both spoke simultaneously, "_I'm _Lien," and, "I'm Ty Lee."

"I'm sorry, girls. Ty Lee, Lien, did you two enjoy the show?" He asked again, making sure to meet each girl's eyes as he said her name, an apologetic look on his face.

"Yes," Ty Lee grumbled. Lien was the sister she was most frequently confused with. Lien was less than a year older than Ty Lee, but she was a grade ahead of her in school. Both girls were the same height, and wore the same size clothes (which they frequently stole back and forth claiming this or that item belonged to this or that sister). Of course, they also both had the same chocolate brown eyes and the same light brown hair pulled into a long braid that all seven sisters shared.

Once Ty Lee had stared at her mother's sewing kit, particularly at the scissors, for at least twenty minutes, weighing the pros and cons of cutting off her long hair. She had picked up the scissors and held them in one hand, her braid in the other, looking back and forth between the two. It _would_ make her stand out from her sisters, but her mother would also be very mad. She wanted to be unique and special but in the end she decided that cutting her hair was _not_ the way to go. Secretly, she loved her long hair as much as her mother did.

"Hold your sister's hand," her mother said, as they left the big top and Ty Lee obediently took Xiulan's hand, only to drop it a few minutes later when Lien jumped up onto a garden wall.

"Look! I'm a tight rope walker!" She yelled, pretending to dance along the wall the way that the woman in the circus had. The rest of the family was discussing the night's events; what their favorite part was and if they would be able to go back, and TyLee couldn't help but join her sister, twirling along the wall behind her.

The youngest sister executed a twirl the way the woman had; spinning one leg in a windmill sort of pattern, but when Lien tried the same thing, she slipped. "Oof," she said as her foot slid out from underneath her and she landed on the other side of the stone wall, in someone's grass.

Ty Lee giggled and Hsiu-Mei, who had been watching them, rolled her eyes. Lien climbed back over the wall and they ran to catch up to their family. Ty Lee cartwheeled twice along the wall and then dismounted smoothly, pushing off with her hands.

"That was so cool!" Lien shouted, causing Fei-Yen and Zi to turn away from their conversation and look at their youngest sisters with raised eyebrows. Ty Lee grinned, she had worked really hard on her cartwheels, practicing them in the courtyard after her homework was done; or more like during when she should have been doing her homework, but still, she worked hard.

All of that practice had apparently paid off as Ty Lee now knew of one thing that not only made her heart soar to imagine, but that she could do better than her sisters. So, as Xiulan took her hand back Ty Lee let her mind wander off into all of the amazing things _she_ would one day be able to do on the tight rope.

* * *

**A/N: ***looks at the clock then at herself still writing fanfiction* No wonder I don't get any sleep.

Here's a fun fact about Jiao-Jie's childhood! When my family went to the circus I was too sick to get out of bed and I had to stay home. By "fun" I actually meant super depressing.

But I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, I certainly enjoyed writing it. =). Thank you very much to my wonderful reviewers and even a couple favoriters!


	7. Laundry Guy

**Laundry Guy**

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Ty Lee groaned in frustration and twisted her hip length hair up into a knot, hoping it would stay there this time. That morning, Ty Lee had sat on her metal cot waiting for the guards to open the doors of her cell block and end the lock down. She was braiding her hair, like normal, hoping that today was the day she would get to see Mai again. When she wrapped the thin leather strap around the end of her hair to secure the braid and pulled it tight, it snapped.

She was devastated. The girl stared forlornly at two pieces of dried leather, both of which seemed to be exactly short enough that they wouldn't fit around her braid. That day the girl was assigned to laundry duty; pushing a cart to all of the cells along with a dark haired, intimidating man (after a little argument, he did the pushing), collecting the old blankets and prison uniforms, and distributing the clean ones.

There had been another short spat between the man and Ty Lee about who would handle the dirty and who would handle the clean. It ended rather quickly when the young woman jabbed him in the throat and lifted a stack of raggedy, but clean blankets while he stood gagging and coughing. After a few minutes, both of them were getting frustrated with how frequently she had to stop and twirl her hair up into a knot. She would get about two cells down before her long hair slowly slid out of the makeshift bun and the whole process started again.

"Spirits, Princess, are we gonna stop every three minutes so you can play with your hair?" He asked, irritated when the girl paused yet again. _We haven't even finished this cell block for Agni's sake,_ he thought.

But the petite woman whipped around to face him her eyes flashing, "YES" she shouted, pulling the knot tightly, "Do you have a problem with that?" But even as she spoke she felt the weight of her hair pulling the knot out and she let out another squeal of frustration, this time just giving letting it hang free down her back.

The loneliness of the lock down, all of her worrying about Mai, her anger at Azula, and her lack of real food and hot baths were really starting to get to the girl. She wasn't sure how much more she could take from anyone and the man seemed to be able to tell. He was three times as wide as her, and almost two feet taller, yet when she turned on him he pulled back, his hands up defensively, "Okay, okay, you don't have to get upset, Princess."

"STOP CALLING ME THAT," she almost shrieked causing the man to flinch.

"Okay, yeesh," He said, eyes wide.

They stood there for a few minutes in awkward silence; him afraid to say anything (you never knew what people in the Boiling Rock were capable of), and her breathing hard. It was rare that Ty Lee lost her temper; she was usually very good at reigning in her emotions and making herself calm down. So now, feeling bad for yelling at him, she straightened her back and worked on inhaling the positive and exhaling the negative just like she had learned in her yoga classes. "We need to finish delivering the laundry," she said calmly, trying to make her face apologetic.

He began to speak but was interrupted from by a faint yell, and a small bang from the cell one ahead of them. Ty Lee turned; the cells were supposed to be empty so they could finish their work, but the bang and the sound of a voice muffled by steel came again. Ty Lee couldn't resist, she put her ear against the door and waited. When the sound came again her entire face lit up and she slid the small metal window open to see the gold eyes of her best friend.

"MAI!" She yelled happily.

"It's about time you noticed me. I thought that was you I heard yelling out there," Mai said, a small smile on her own lips.

"Ohmygosh I missed you so much!" She squealed and tried the handle to Mai's cell but it was locked tight, "How much longer until you can come back?"

"I don't know, I thought it would only be a few days. They let me out for an hour after you've all been taken inside but that's it. I thought it was boring before, but it was nothing compared to this," she explained. The average person would have only seen the same, emotionless mask plastered onto Mai's thin face, but Ty Lee had known her long enough to be able to read her expressions. She had learned to recognize from the small droop at the corners of her friend's mouth, and the watery sheen of her eyes, that Mai was as lonely and scared as she was.

Ty Lee frowned, "They _have _to let you out soon," she said in her most comforting voice. "What have you been doing in there anyway?" When in doubt, Ty Lee knew that one of the best way to make someone feel better was to change the subject.

It worked, and Mai's face broke out into one of her signature, mischievous smirks. She turned around for a moment, grabbed something out from underneath her pitiful mattress and appeared back at the door, still smiling.

"When, I _do _get out of here, they're sure in for a surprise," she said, an angry glint in her eye as she held up three pieces of metal that looked like they had been broken from a rusty place on her cot or wall. Ty Lee didn't get it at first, but then Mai tilted the metal to glint in the light, and the acrobat could see how they had been filed into razor sharp shurikens.

"Wow, those are great!" Ty Lee said with a grin; at least Mai had found something to keep her from going crazy.

"I'm going to save them until we can come up with a good escape plan," Mai whispered.

"Escape plan?" The man behind Ty Lee asked perking up. He had been standing boredly off to the side, leaning against the wall and waiting for Ty Lee to finish her talk.

Mai leaned to the side in an attempt to see who had spoken. "I didn't know you had someone with you," She said, frowning.

"Don't talk to her! Get back to work!" A guard had finally come by to check on what Ty Lee and her partner were doing.

Ty Lee looked sadly at her friend, who's eyes were starting to get shiny again, "I'm sure they'll let you out soon," she said, before the guard came up and slammed the little window shut, giving Ty Lee a little push along.

"Go on," he ordered. She glared but said nothing, what use would it be for her to get put in solitary confinement too?

* * *

Ty Lee and the man finished their rounds late, thanks to all of the stops and the girl's chat with Mai. Now the two of them were very near the back of the food line. _Great,_ Ty Lee thought, _Now I'll get all the gross, sludgy stuff that sinks to the bottom of the pot._ She subconsciously made a disgusted face, thinking about it.

"Hey," the man said, poking her in the side, "I want in on your escape plan."

"We don't have a plan," She said, totally honestly. They really didn't; before Mai was sent away they'd spent almost all of their time brainstorming. Even if they _could_ fight their way past the guards, neither of them was able to come up with a way of getting off the island.

"Don't lie to me, little girl," he said, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm not lying, and I'm not little," she said spitefully an instant before she realized how little she felt next to him.

"What if I told the guards about your plan?" He asked quietly, both of them stepping forward with the line.

"There _is _no plan. If you went to them you'd just look like the idiot for not having any details _or_ evidence," she did her best to imitate Azula's threatening yet overly sweet voice. She hadn't quite perfected it and it never came out as menacing as Azula's did. It was much too cheery and not nearly scary enough.

Nonetheless, her imitation of Azula seemed to do the trick, probably because the man had never heard the real Fire Nation Princess speak. So, he just scoffed and stayed silent until they reached the table. In the meantime Ty Lee tried to make a list of everything that was good about her life right now. It was something she used to do whenever she got depressed, and recently the list was becoming shorter.

_Well…I saw Mai today so I know she's alright and that she isn't going crazy. It's..uhm…well there's a breeze, so it's not as hot as normal._ There was a break when she ran through everything that had happened that day trying to think of anything else, and coming up with only one: _At least I didn't have to carry the dirty laundry._ _Three things are better than zero things, I suppose,_ she thought as she stepped up to get her dinner

Ty Lee smiled at SoupGuard when he gave her a scoop of the sludgy bottom gruel. "Thank you," she said sweetly, but all she got was a minute nod of the head. When he had been delivering the food during the lock down, he would answer her questions, albeit somewhat reluctantly and always accompanied by a nervous look. She had learned that he _did _get vacation time (two weekends a month), that he wasn't a fire bender, and that their dinner was actually pre-made and shipped out, so all he had to do was add water and stir. However, now that things were back to normal he had returned to being silent and stone-faced and Ty Lee was more than a little disappointed, and also afraid that her fragile friendship with the man was over.

She sighed and turned to head back to her usual bench, but stopped in her tracks when she saw that it was already occupied by the Kyoshis. She groaned. They hadn't been mean to her like she had expected, instead they shot in snide comments and glares here or there, but otherwise pointedly ignored her. She guessed they must be embarrassed about when she, Mai and Azula had beaten them.

With her regular spot taken, Ty Lee stood awkwardly in the corner of the courtyard next to the table where the food was served, several other prisoners milling around. She sighed yet again and decided to go sit against the wall, but when she took a step forward she found herself jerked back by her hair, which had been tangled in the hinge of the folding table by the breeze. She felt her face heat up as a couple of the other prisoners laughed.

_Breeze, you're officially off the good things list._ She thought, turning around and trying to gently pull her hair out while breaking as little as possible. Once she released her hair, several strands still dangling in the table, she noticed one laugh standing out from the others. It was the LaundryGuy. The normally calm girl felt her temper rising yet again.

She imagined herself flipping over to him and kicking him in the elbow, sending his dinner bowl into his face. Then she would spin around to jab him in the shoulders with her knuckles. His arms would droop and with one, (_super impressive!_ she thought) side kick in the ribs he would be down for the count. She would stand over him smiling triumphantly while he would lie on the ground, twitching and covered in disgusting soup.

Except that's when Ty Lee snapped back to reality and noticed that she was standing triumphantly over the man while he lay on the ground, twitching and covered in disgusting soup.

The world seemed to rush in on her and her fists drooped as she noticed a couple of the other prisoners staring at her with shocked looks. SoupGuard's arm frozen in the air, his ladle hovering over someone's bowl. Another guard stepped through the steel door whistling and holding two cups of tea.

He stopped in his tracks and quirked his head to the side as he tried to take in the scene before him. "What happened?" He asked, glancing between Ty Lee's shocked look and wilting stance, and the man lying on the ground, no one moved. "Shan?" he asked, turning to SoupGuard, who cleared his throat and finally lowered his ladle arm. By that time a small circle of prisoners had collected, most of which had no idea what had happened.

"Er, that guy attacked her?" he said, but it came out sounding more like a question. Apparently the scene had happened fast enough, and the confusion amongst the prisoners at seeing a five foot 115 pound girl take down a 6 foot man in a matter of seconds, was great enough that no one stood up to argue with him.

"Uh…well, okay. Here's your tea," he said, hanging SoupGuard one of the cups and waving with the now free hand for another guard to drag LaundryGuy away. Ty Lee smiled gratefully at SoupGuard, but quickly made her way to the edge of the courtyard.

One thing her non-braided hair was good for was hiding her face when she was embarrassed, so she took advantage of that now, sipping her soup quietly. Soon she was back to thinking about daring escape plans and she didn't realize the Kyoshis whispering behind their hands and looking over at her.

* * *

**A/N: **To readers/reviewers/favoriters/misc: Thanks, and I heart you! Yeah, you at the computer.


	8. Schoolyard Battles

**Schoolyard Battles**

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After several (very painful) failures, Ty Lee could make her way, gracefully across the top of the monkey bars that she and Mai had claimed on the second day of class. Now she skipped lightly from one side to the other, getting impatient.

"Come on!" She shouted to her friend, who was standing below her looking nervous. The memories of Ty Lee's numerous slips, misses and scraped knees still lingered in Mai's mind, but the girl in question seemed to have forgotten all about it. She stood on her tip toes, looking expectantly at Mai with her hands on her hips.

"I'm not gonna throw rocks at you, Ty Lee," Mai said, as though she was talking to a baby. She crossed her arms over her chest and tried to stare her friend down.

"Well would _you_ rather dodge while, _I_ earth bend?" She asked, knowing exactly what Mai's answer would be. Both girls were well aware of the fact that, while Mai was very agile, her balance was no match for Ty Lee's.

Mai sighed heavily and looked at the small pile of rocks that Ty Lee had gathered for her new game. Reluctantly, she picked up one of the smaller stones and tossed it off to one side of Ty Lee. The younger girl didn't move and the rock missed her by a mile; she only stared at her friend, pouting.

"Fine, but if you get hit it's your own fault," Mai groaned, and threw another rock with a bit more strength this time. Ty Lee smiled and stepped one bar to her left, easily evading the rock.

"You're not even trying!" she yelled.

Mai frowned, picking up another stone and aiming straight at her friend. With a small, 'meep' Ty Lee flattened herself along the bars, narrowly avoiding the earth. "Better!" She said with her trademark toothy smile. Mai returned the smirk and tossed rock after rock, running and rolling along the ground while Ty Lee flipped under the bars, twirled or jumped to avoid them.

Soon, Mai was getting more into the game, forgetting that a few of the other girls were watching and she found herself having fun. That was usually the way Ty Lee's games went: Mai would refuse out of embarrassment or shyness, but after constant berating and assurances from Ty Lee she would join, only to find that it was actually a lot of fun.

"FOR THE EARTH KINGDOM!" Mai shouted dramatically, assuming a pretend Earth Bending stance before pegging a small rock towards Ty Lee who bent backwards, grasping the side bar. She swung her body around in a flip then dropped into a crouch on the ground.

Slowly raising her eyes to meet Mai's mock-glare, Ty Lee pretended that she was a brave heroine in an epic battle for the future of the Fire Nation. She stood up slowly and imagined her and Mai standing across from each other on an open battle ground, the city of Ba Sing Se burning behind them.

Mai stepped back into another Earth Bending stance, a rock clutched tightly in each hand. She acted first, lunging forward and firing one of the rocks at her friend who leapt to the side, rolling along the ground. Pushing herself into a standing position, Ty Lee spun around quickly and pushed both of her palms out, shooting a pretend fire ball, complete with sound effects.

"WHOOOSH!" Ty Lee shouted. Mai stomped the ground and made an equally silly sound effect for the imaginary wall of rock she had created, then spun around and punched one of her rocks towards Ty Lee. The latter ducked out of its way and swung her legs in a series of wide, arching kicks the way she had seen in fire bending practices, adding a small "whoosh" sound to each one. Earth-Bender-Mai tried to lean to the side, but wasn't fast enough and she screamed, clutching her arm.

"You'll pay for that!" Mai yelled, one of her arms hanging limp at her side when she catapulted her last rock at Ty Lee's head. The mock-fire-bender caught it easily, but pretended that she had been hit, clutching at her chest and falling to her knees.

"No," she gasped quietly, one arm outstretched and fell onto her back, tongue out to the side.

They started to giggle, but the girls were cut off, shocked, when one of the bystander students, intrigued by the game, inserted herself seamlessly into the story.

"NUU!" Princess Azula shouted, kneeling beside Ty Lee, "I'll avenge you brave soldier!" She yelled forcefully. Mai's eyes were wide but she decided to play along and see where this was going.

Forgetting she was dead, Ty Lee sat up and watched the new battle. Mai seemed to have no qualms about throwing rocks at a princess because she pretend-fought just as hard as she had against her best friend. One rock after another sailed through the air towards Azula, all of which she managed to twist away from, or duck underneath. Vaguely, Ty Lee wondered what would happen to Mai if one of those rocks found its mark.

Lucky for all involved, Azula was very fast and the princess' fire bending was much more impressive than Ty Lee's; she shot real flames at Mai (complete with actual fire sounds), but not more than five or six inches past her hands or feet. Mai was having a hard time fighting with only one arm, and as she tried to dodge to the side without using it as support, Azula punched three times in quick succession. Mai screamed, high pitched and dramatically then fell to the ground and lay still.

Ty Lee clapped and Mai sat up smiling. Remembering her manners, Ty Lee bowed quickly to Azula after jumping to her feet, "That was fun!" She exclaimed, "Thanks for helping out my fire bending, Princess!"

Azula smiled, "I couldn't let the _Earth Kingdom_ win," she said then turned towards Mai, who was dusting off her uniform, "Who are you?"

Mai bowed politely her face serene; no one would have ever believed that she had been giggling and shrieking just moments ago, "My name's Mai."

"You live across the street from me, don't you?" Azula asked. In the distance, the school gong rang and the three girls started making their way back to class.

"Yes, my grandfather was one of FireLord Azulon's advisors and he gave us that house," Ty Lee started to feel left out. Both of these girls were from very rich and powerful families, and neither of them had any older sisters. _I guess it's no surprise that they would be friends with each other instead of me,_ she thought as she sadly followed them back to the school building.

But then Azula turned around. "You're Ty Lee aren't you? Sorry for getting you in trouble for tapping the other day," she drawled, but the tone of her voice was flippant and not at all sorry. "You're the one with all those sisters, huh?" Ty Lee nodded, "My father says your dad isn't allowed at court because you wasted all your money." Ty Lee's eyes widened and over Azula's shoulder she saw Mai's expression was mirroring her own, "That was a really great game though! I'll see you girls later!" she added cheerfully before settling down at her desk.

Mai's eyes found hers and she shrugged slightly, "So…were you still gonna come over today?" Mai asked before class started and Ty Lee nodded, dazed.

But Ty Lee was distracted; she wasn't sure if she should feel insulted for the sake of her father, or flattered at her good game choice. She would later come to recognize the very unique talent that Azula possessed, of insulting someone and complimenting them at the same time. Somehow, the princess could be borderline cruel to her friends, yet throw in small remarks of praise that just made Ty Lee try harder to please her.

Even as a school girl, Ty Lee could see that Azula had never had to strive to be noticed.

* * *

**A/N: **I reminded myself with my own chapter title: If you haven't seen the School Time Shipping short...WATCH IT. RIGHT NOW. YOUTUBE. GOGOGO.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Those of you who have been keeping up with this story, even if you haven't reviewed (although I'd appreciate it *wink*) I still love you. n.n


	9. Friends

**Friends**

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* * *

**

"No."

"Please?"

"I said no."

"PLEEAASE," Ty Lee begged in her sweetest, most annoying voice as she looked up through her eyelashes, hands clasped in front of her.

"NO. I'm not allowed to give you anything, I'll get in trouble," SoupGuard pushed a cart full of dishes from the break room to the kitchen, doing his best to ignore her. Today Ty Lee was on mop duty. Her mop left a trail of water behind her as she bounced beside her reluctant friend.

"Come on. They're just chopsticks; no one will know. It's not like I'm asking you for a katana," she said sarcastically before quickly resuming the puppy dog eyes.

"I'm not even supposed to _talk _to you!"

"Well then you're already breaking the rules, so just give me the chopsticks!" She poked his helmet with the handle of her mop, but he glared and smacked it away.

Ty Lee took a deep breath, "PPLLLL-"

"Fine!" he said, exasperated, and then thrust a pair of red chopsticks at her.

"YAY! Thank you!" Ty Lee went to throw her arms around his neck in a hug, but only ended up hitting him with the mop handle again, forgetting it was in her hand. "Oops, sorry," She straightened his helmet and smiled happily.

"What do you want them for anyway?" SoupGuard asked. Frowning, he leaned out of the little alcove where they were standing to make sure no other guards were coming, "You'd better not be planning to use them for a weapon or something," he couldn't afford to cover for her again like he had after the fight in the yard. She was contagiously happy, as well as funny but someone would eventually notice if he kept helping her and he would suffer for it.

"Pfft, of course not. They're not even that sharp" she grinned wider, examining the gold pattern around the edge of her new chopsticks. Mopping had been dreadfully boring, and Ty Lee was making a small swirl pattern with the water when she saw her semi-friend push the cart full of dishes into a nearby hallway. After glancing around to make sure no one was watching she had dashed in after him, at first only so that she would have someone to talk to (not surprisingly, most of the other prisoners ignored her when she asked cheerfully prying questions) but then she had an epiphany.

For days the girl had been struggling with her waist length hair. She had tried all kinds of knots to see which ones would stay and she had tried to use this or that item as a pin, but in the end she had given up. She let her hair hang down, even if it was annoying. _Not anymore!_ She thought happily, quickly twisting her hair around and into a bun, then securing it with her new chopsticks.

"Thanks again, you're the best!" She exclaimed, before giving him a one armed hug and skipping away to clean up her own water trail.

SoupGuard stood awkwardly in the hall, and then cleared his throat. "You're welcome," he said but only in time to see Ty Lee's chopsticks disappear around the corner.

* * *

"_Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."  
__-Mark Twain_

_

* * *

_

Without her hair constantly falling into her face, or getting in the way of her hands, Ty Lee didn't mind mopping so much. The floor wasn't really all that dirty, she figured that it was just so that the prisoners had something to do, but that's exactly why she liked it. She got very bored and lonely when she had nothing to focus on, and pretend work at least gave her _something_ to do.

Ty Lee decided that she would mop around the edges of the room first, then work her way in, which earned her some very strange looks from the other prisoners, all of which were mopping one area at a time before moving on; but of course, she didn't notice. Humming, she made her away around the stairs and into a small alcove that was partially covered in shadow. The first thing that Ty Lee noticed was that there was already another girl with a mop standing in the alcove. The second was that the girl was using the mop to support herself, her shoulders shaking with quiet tears.

"Are you okay?" Ty Lee asked kindly, taking a few steps closer. The girl jumped and their eyes met. _One of the Kyoshis, _Ty Lee realized. For some reason she had always imagined the Kyoshi Warriors as too strong and brave to cry, but she forgot that they were really just teenage girls, like her.

"What do _you_ want?" She spat.

"Well you were crying so I asked if you were okay," Ty Lee instinctively went to grab her braid before she realized that her hair was in a bun, so she settled for clutching the mop handle and looking awkwardly off to the side.

"I'm not crying. Leave me alone," the girl sniffed and resumed mopping with her back to Ty Lee.

"It's alright to cry sometimes you know. I'm in the same situation as you and I know how it feels," She shifted her weight, watching the girl to see her reaction. The warrior didn't reply, but her mop was still, so Ty Lee continued, "I do almost every night."

The Kyoshi turned her head slightly to examine Ty Lee with red-rimmed eyes, "Why are you here, anyway? I thought you were friends with the princess."

Ty Lee looked down, "I was. Mai and I sort of betrayed her so she had us locked up here." She didn't really feel like revealing the whole story to the girl, it still hurt. Ty Lee knew that Mai was really only Azula's friend because she had to be, but Ty Lee had genuinely liked her, especially when they were children. Azula was mean to her a lot of the time, but other times she had showed genuine kindness, or emotion, and that was the friend that Ty Lee liked to remember.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," the girl said, her eyebrows raised.

"Eh, it's ancient history," she said, dismissing it with a wave of her hand, "What's your name?"

The girl examined her for a moment before deciding to answer, "Aiko, what's yours?"

"Ty Lee," she smiled, "I'm sorry about when…you know…"

"It's alright, ancient history," she returned a weak smile and leaned against the wall, looking at her feet.

There was a very long, extremely awkward pause in which Ty Lee racked her mind for something to say to the girl. She had a real chance to make a friend out of her old enemy, what could she tell her to make her feel better? Eventually, she settled on exactly what she told herself each night.

"You're lonely, huh? And scared that you'll never see the outside of this volcano again?" The girl nodded, her lip starting to quiver.

That must have been the right thing to say, because the warrior let it all flow out, too anxious to express her feelings to remember that she and Ty Lee were not on speaking terms up to thirty seconds ago. "I have Nishi and all, but I only get to see her for a few hours during the day when we all go out to the yard. She's on a different cell block so I haven't gotten to work with her once. I think they're keeping us apart on purpose. I don't know why they transfered just us too and the other Kyoshi warriors in Capital City..." Ty Lee could hear Aiko's voice start to break, and her green eyes began to water again.

"I know how you feel," When she saw someone else break down, Ty Lee always had to fight the urge to cry herself, "My best friend's been in solitary confinement and I've only gotten to talk to her once in the last few weeks. But do you want to know what helps me feel better?"

Aiko wiped her tears on her sleeve and gave a small nod. Ty Lee's father had told her something long ago, when she was feeling lonely and forgotten amongst her sisters, and she remembered it now.

"Keep your face in the sunshine and you will never see the shadow."

"What does that mean? I've never understood any of those riddle proverbs,"

"It means that if you focus on the good things in life the bad don't seem so bad anymore," Ty Lee said, struggling with the right words, "Like…sometimes I make a list, you know?"

"A list?" Aiko raised her eyebrow, her confusion evident.

"Yeah, of all the good things I can think of. Like, today my friend gave me these chopsticks for my hair so it doesn't get in the way anymore. I was near the front of the breakfast line so I got some of the warm stuff, and I met you. Three good things, now it's your turn."

Some people would say that Ty Lee had a near permanent cheerful outlook and somehow shut out the bad, but the truth was, she had just learned to direct her mind away from it, and even if she felt like her heart was breaking from loneliness she would do everything she could think of to make herself feel better and keep the despair away. It was a skill that she tried to pass on to her new Kyoshi friend.

"Uhm…" Aiko seemed to be struggling, "I got a new blanket this morning and there were hardly any holes in it. I met you, and in the yard when this creepy guy pinched my butt and I broke his finger, the guard didn't even say anything," she smiled a little bit towards the end.

Ty Lee giggled, "Just a broken finger? If it'd been me he'd be lucky if he could ever use his arm again."

"I think I like you, Ty Lee."

* * *

**A/N: **In case you're wondering about my conspicuous lack of errors that went un-noticed when I read it myself: No, my train of thought _hasn't_ suddenly started making sense, but I did get me a beta-reader! So you can thank Silver Wings Faded Dreams for fixing a few things that didn't make sense before. n.n


	10. The Palace

**A/N: **HOLY CRAP. Why didn't anyone tell me that Ty Lee's name didn't have a hyphen? xD. *just went through and fixed every chapter.* I saw her name in the credits after I saw an episode on the ntoons channel!

* * *

**The Palace**

**

* * *

**

Ty Lee looked at her best friend with terrified eyes. They were standing in front of a pair of heavy wooden doors, flanked by two imperial fire benders. One of the benders pulled the huge door open for the girls, then bowed and motioned them in.

"I guess they knew we were coming," she whispered to Mai and stepped out of the long stone entrance way of the palace and into a bright hallway.

"Of course they knew… Wow, this place is creepy," Mai said quietly, afraid that her voice would echo. The girls heard the door close softly behind them, and silence descended, all sounds muffled. Ty Lee agreed with the creepiness, taking in their surroundings: a large entrance hall with high ceilings supported by towering pillars, and marble floors that reflected the light of paper lanterns hung along the walls. Everything was decorated in the traditional colors of the Fire Nation: red, gold and black, which gave the palace an intimidating, regal feeling.

"I wonder where Azula is," Ty Lee said, loud and perky, her voice reverberating around them; she was very excited to be in the palace, even if it was a little bit haunting. It had taken almost an entire school year of games with Azula during their breaks before she had invited them to play on the weekend. Ty Lee took it as a sign that she had finally made a second friend and had happily accepted.

She skipped up to another pair of double doors at the end of the hall, both of which were open, while Mai hurried along behind her and they found themselves in another large room. This one had gold painted walls lined with portraits of past FireLords.

"Wow," Ty-Lee breathed. Each painting was at least 10 feet tall.

"Maybe we should ask someone?" Mai asked, squinting to see the details of FireLord Zirat's robes, "We probably shouldn't just wander around here."

"There isn't really anyone to ask," she replied, skipping around a corner and leading Mai into a much less grand hallway, with paper walls along one side. Ty Lee leaned up close to the wall, examining the scenes painted across it. She could see delicate mountains, tiny houses, a painted city, and little brush strokes that, through the talent of the artist, were shaped like people.

"Look at this, Mai!" She said pointing to a little brushed maiden holding a parasol beside the palace, but both girls jumped when one of the intricately painted paper doors slid open to reveal a tall, elegant woman.

"Arjun?" She called, looking distracted before her gold eyes landed on the two girls in front of her. "You must be Mai and Ty Lee," she said with a smile. The girls nodded and Ty Lee felt herself relax at the woman's kind expression, but she still felt it best to follow Mai's lead and bow. "Did you see anyone go by here?" She asked.

The girls shook their heads and woman sighed. "I'll find him later, then. My daughter is playing in the garden, I'll take you there," she smiled again and gestured for them to follow her down the hall. _Lady Ursa,_ Ty Lee realized. She was Azula's mother and married to Prince Ozai; she was a princess and Ty Lee was now very glad she'd bowed.

As they reached the end of the hall the sound of screams and shouts floated through the thin paper walls. Ursa frowned as she slid the panel open, to reveal a wooden path through a large, flawlessly designed garden. Ty Lee spotted Azula in the grass under the shade of a large, blooming tree beside a small pond, but she wasn't so much playing as kicking a boy in the in the leg while he tried to pull a toy Fire Navy ship out of her hand.

"It's mine!' The boy yelled as the two of them rolled along the ground, their kicks and punches punctuated with small bursts of flame.

"That must be Prince Zuko," Mai whispered to Ty Lee, who realized Mai was probably right. It was common knowledge that Azula had an older brother, so who else would he be?

"Mom said you had to share with me!" She clutched the wooden toy with both hands and tried to get an angle to kick him in the stomach.

Ty Lee looked at Mai, both of them feeling awkward, but Ursa had already made her way across the garden, "Spirits, I can't leave you two alone for a minute can I!" she said, reaching down and wrenching the toy out of both of her children's hands.

Lady Ursa put her hands on her hips and glared down at the kids, exactly the way Ty Lee's own mother did. Azula and her brother froze instantly at the sound of their mother's voice. They stood slowly, both covered in dirt and grass.

"Mom! He wouldn't let me play with the ship!" Azula started.

Zuko chimed in an instant later, "It's _mine_, she has her own toys!" But Ursa held up her hand to silence her children.

"You have guests over Azula, is this any way to behave?" Azula looked around her mother to see her two friends from school, and then back at Ursa. Ty Lee could swear she saw Azula's cheeks become a light shade of pink. "Ask your brother before you use his toys, if he says no then that's that." Azula's lips pursed, and Zuko smirked at her. "And Zuko, you need to share if your sister asks nicely," the smirk instantly changed to a pout. "Alright?"

"Yes, Mother," they chorused. Ursa handed the ship back to Zuko who exchanged angry glares with his sister, glanced at Mai and Ty Lee and stomped back inside. Ty Lee could hear the prince mumbling about how unfair it was as he passed her.

"Now, I'm going to go find Arjun, then finish my letter, I'll be inside. You girls have fun, alright?" Ursa said, smiling at Mai and Ty Lee, before patting her daughter on the shoulder. The girls both thanked her and bowed one more time as Ursa made her way back into the palace.

Azula had her arms crossed over her chest, her eyebrows knit angrily and her bottom lip extended in a pout.

"So..." Mai said monotonically, "You have a lovely home." It brought back memories of Ty Lee's countless etiquette lessons from her mother and she cursed herself for forgetting to give a compliment or thank Azula for inviting her.

"Really? That's _weird,_ I had _no_ idea." Azula snapped. The corner of Mai's lip twitched by she didn't respond.

Ty Lee wasn't sure what else to do, but she did remember one thing she'd been meaning to ask Azula about, and now it seemed like the perfect distraction from her friend's anger, _Better than watching her and Mai fight,_ Ty Lee thought.

"Is it true there's a secret tunnel from the palace that leads out of the city?" She asked brightly. Mai turned to look at her in shock, but she _had _managed to successfully distract Azula.

"Uh, I don't know," the princess said, a thoughtful look on her face, "Mrs. Cheng said something about it in school though, didn't she?"

"Yeah, she said it was so the royal family could get out in an emergency" Ty Lee had actually been paying attention that day, "We should try and find it! Right Mai?" The quiet girl shifted her weight onto one of her feet, her arms crossed with a bored look on her face. Mai claimed she only agreed to go play with Azula at the palace because Ty Lee wanted her to. She knew that Mai didn't really like Azula, but she also knew that her friend wanted to see the inside of the palace as much as she did.

Now, Mai gave a noncommittal kind of shrug, and they both glanced to the princess, "Sure," Azula said, her normal arrogant tone returning, "But if it was to protect the royal family in case of an attack it would have been near the center of the palace. Come on!" She motioned for the other girls to follow her inside through one of the side doors.

For a while, they actually tried to think logically about where such a tunnel could be hidden, all three hoping that they could find a secret way out of the city. Eventually, though, their search devolved into a game where the palace was under attack and they had to fight their way out. After hours of wandering through random hallways and pushing on wall panels, followed by kicking at the air and rolling around corners, they still never found any secret tunnels. The girls eventually gave up, ending up in the garden where they started.

Mai lay on her back watching the sky slowly turn orange, while Ty Lee tried to teach Azula a game that she played with her sisters.

"Okay, so hold your hands out flat, like this," Ty Lee gestured and Azula copied her. "Then I put my hands over yours, like this."

"Oookay," Azula looked at Ty Lee blankly.

"Then you try and hit the top of my hands before I move mine away."

"When? Do you say 'go' or something?"

"No, you just do it. If I knew when you were going to go the game would be too easy," Ty Lee almost laughed.

The princess looked unsure, but before Ty Lee noticed her move, Azula had slapped the top of her hands. "How was _that _supposed to be fun?" Azula asked.

"Uhm, it's not usually so easy. Let's switch. I'll try and hit you this time," Ty Lee frowned; usually she was very good at that game. But her luck didn't improve. She tried time and time again to hit Azula, who would jerk her hands away but by the time Mai sat up, Ty Lee was giggling along with the princess.

"I think-," Mai started to say, but one of the sliding doors opened and Zuko peeked his head out.

"Azula? Did I leave that wooden sword out here?" The prince seemed to have already forgotten about the fight. "Oh, hi," he said at the sight of his sister's friends.

"Hi," they chorused, Ty Lee cheerfully, and Mai significantly less so.

"I haven't seen it. Maybe you should check your room again," Azula replied sweetly, as Ty Lee missed her hands again.

Zuko groaned, "I might have left it at Xiu's…" he mumbled as he slid the door shut.

Azula turned to check if her brother was gone, then leaned forward and whispered to Ty Lee, "I have it," followed by a devious grin. Ty-Lee couldn't help but giggle. She knew that she wasn't supposed to support the stealing of toys amongst siblings, but she remembered of the times _she _had taken something from her sisters without asking them; so she knew she wasn't exactly one to talk.

"Like I was saying," Mai was frowning more than usual when she interrupted the other girls, "I think I'm going to go home."

"Awwwh," Did Mai really have to leave already? Ty Lee pouted. The day had been so much fun.

"Bye, Mai!" Azula smiled in what would normally have been a warm way, but like many of the princess' smiles, it didn't seem to reach her eyes. There was something else in Mai's face, besides boredom. An emotionless mask that six year old Ty Lee hadn't quite learned to distinguish from her friend's _other_ emotionless masks. She said goodbye, confused, but a light bulb went on in the girl's head when, as Mai left the garden, she let her hair bangs hang over her eyes.

Mai was sad. Ty Lee instantly felt guilty. Of course she would be sad; Ty Lee was her best friend and she had spent the whole day playing and having fun with a girl that Mai didn't even like, while the quieter girl had been left on the wayside. Ty Lee could still remember sitting in the courtyard at Mai's house, right after she had met Azula.

"_She's not even nice; did you notice how she didn't have any friends until we let her play with us?" Mai had said._

"_She did so. Almost everyone wants to be her friend."_

"_Yeah, but only because she's a princess. No one would even talk to her if she wasn't."_

Ty Lee realized that Mai was right. Those girls all wanted to be Azula's friend, but all of them had seemed scared of her; they did everything she said and always made sure to let her win. Even Mrs. Cheng avoided scolding her.

Of course, Mai couldn't refuse to go when Azula invited her over; an 'invitation' from a member of the royal family to a governor's daughter was essentially a command, so she had stood by, halfheartedly playing along with their games. Ty Lee sighed but then realized that the princess was giving her a questioning look.

"Are you okay?" Azula asked, giving Ty Lee _that look_ that said she thought she was nuts.

"Yeah, I was just thinking,"

"Did it hurt?" Azula asked, with a smirk. Déjà vu; Ty Lee could remember Mai saying those exact words, but her new friend's expression didn't have any of the teasing or warmness that Mai's had.

"I'm not stupid," she muttered. _Azula really _isn't _nice,_ Ty Lee realized, looking down at her hands as she tried to stop her eyes from watering. But her opinion of the princess didn't last long.

Azula's face changed to sympathetic in an instant, and Ty Lee thought she might even look regretful, "I'm sorry, Ty Lee. I was just joking; I don't think you're stupid," Azula leaned over to meet her eyes she nodded.

"Girls? It's getting late, I think it's time for Ty Lee to go home now," Ursa's voice came from the door; it had opened without either girl realizing. The sun had indeed set, and Ty Lee stood, dusting herself off.

"Do you want me to bring that scroll to school for you tomorrow, so you can borrow it?" Azula asked, still looking uneasy.

"Sure, thanks Princess!" Ty Lee remembered the fortune telling scroll she had found in the library while they were searching for secret passages, and signature smile returned. She quickly hugged Azula before skipping through the door that Ursa held open for her.

_Maybe she isn't so bad,_ Ty Lee thought, smiling as one of the imperial fire bender's escorted her home.

* * *

**A/N:** It may seem OOC for Azula to apologize, but I remembered when she made Ty Lee cry on Ember island and then instantly apologized and told her she was jealous. It was a weird move, but it happened in the show so it can happen in my fanfiction! xD


	11. The Kyoshi Warriors

**The Kyoshi Warriors**

**

* * *

**

"Nishi and I saw you kick that guy's butt, by the way," Aiko was smiling as she slapped the back of Ty Lee's hands. "I win again!"

"Really? And you guys didn't say anything?" Just in time, Ty Lee noticed a muscle in Aiko's wrist twitch and managed to jerk her hands out of the way. The girls were sitting cross-legged on top of the steel table, the laundry pushed into a heap beside them. Aiko shook her head in the negative, and again slapped the back of Ty Lee's hands quick as lightening.

"Awwh, I used to be so good at this game," she said with an exaggerated sigh, eliciting a grin from Aiko. After some very monotonous uniform folding, followed by the realization that the guards didn't bother to supervise the their work, only stood outside the laundry room, Ty Lee decided to teach her new friend one of the games she'd played as a little girl. The clean laundry fell down the chute as fast as the girls could fold it anyway, so as long as they didn't make too much noise Ty Lee figured they could get away with slacking.

"…Hahaha….I think he's kind of cute…with those blue eyes…" the voices of two women guards floated through the door.

After a few more lost games, Ty Lee's hands were starting to get red so she pulled them back, resting her elbows on her knees and leaning her chin on her palms, "But why didn't you tell?" she asked, curious. If the Kyoshis had said to the guards that they'd seen Ty Lee throw the first (and only) punches, then surely some of the other prisoners would have spoken up as well instead of standing in a daze. Then, she would have been sent away like Mai and with a jolt Ty Lee realized that SoupGuard would probably have lost his job for lying, if he wasn't arrested for conspiring with prisoners.

"…You just don't see that too often is all I'm saying"

"…Alright I'll give you the blue eyes…but that belly…"

Aiko shrugged, examining the ragged hem of her red tunic, "I dunno, selling out one of the few female prisoners? It'd be like betraying my own kind," she smiled awkwardly. Ty Lee could tell that wasn't the whole reason and after a glance at her raised eyebrow, Aiko dropped the fake smile, "I really don't know, it just felt wrong. We both hated you and we talked about it later, but neither of us felt right…going to the guards…it was like...uhm...I don't know... tattling? No, that's not what I mean. Uhm I just don't know…you know?" Ty Lee didn't really understand, but nodded anyway, just to put Aiko out of her misery. She smiled gratefully.

"...just sit by him tonight in the cafeteria!"

"Plus it was really cool." Aiko added, her smile genuine, and the acrobat couldn't help but giggle. "Really! You were like, flipflip HYAH! Kick flip, punch!" she mimed out each sound effect as she spoke.

"Well, I _am_ pretty great," Ty Lee replied, flexing her biceps. There was another fit of giggling. Ty Lee vaguely realized that she could no longer hear the guards, just in time for the door to open. The guards stepped inside, having heard the laughing.

"This is not a slumber party," one of the guards said, her voice harsh. Ty Lee couldn't see behind her helmet, but for some reason she imagined the face of her former Physical Activity teacher from the Fire Academy, "Get back to work." The guard pulled Aiko off of the table forcefully, and Ty Lee saw the anger flash across her friend's face. Remembering the way Mai had been taken away, Ty Lee felt panic rise up in her chest. _What if they take Aiko too? _

They had just met, but the more she got to know the girl from Kyoshi, the more Ty Lee liked her. Aiko nowhere near as severe as Ty Lee had imagined, and she figured that it was just a front. They were on the same cell block so they generally got assigned to the same work detail, and it was only then that Aiko would let her mask down and the acrobat could see how very unhappy she was. Yet, when she was in the yard, or anywhere the guards could see, Aiko's face would change completely into that of a Kyoshi Warrior: strong and determined.

After their idle work talk, Ty Lee had learned that Aiko had grown up in Kyoshi, idolizing the female warriors that protected their town, and when she was 13 she went, under the urging of a friend, to visit the gym where the warriors trained. Together they got down on their knees and asked to be accepted as students, but the woman who was in charge at the time refused, saying that they were too young. She and her friend, Suki, went back each day until finally the woman agreed, only to be blown away when Aiko won the first sparring match she'd been thrown in to; something which was meant to humiliate her.

"_And now Suki is the leader!" Aiko had explained, "Funny, huh?"_

_She's actually a lot like Mai; putting up a mask to hide behind,_ Ty Lee realized, _well, maybe not quite as bad as Mai...and Mai could never stand to wear all that bright makeup._

Now, Ty Lee watched the other girl's face closely. Aiko's mouth was pulled into a sneer as the woman stepped away, and Ty Lee could only assume that the Kyoshi was imagining all the horrible things she wanted to do to the woman as payback. Thankfully, she restrained herself; Ty Lee breathed a sigh of relief and the girls went back to their folding in silence, with the door open so the guards could keep an eye on them.

* * *

That evening in the food line Ty Lee sported a huge grin. That in itself wasn't exactly unusual; for a long time SoupGuard had been her only 'friend' and getting to talk to him (even though he didn't always talk back) at each meal time were the happiest parts of her day. But that day, as they were lead back to their cells, Aiko had whispered to find her after dinner at the edge of the courtyard underneath the guard tower so she could meet Nishi.

Ty Lee smiled widely, "Thanks!" she said to SoupGuard, who nodded before taking another ladle of gruel and moving on to the next bowl. Ty Lee bounced a few paces towards the other side of the courtyard, but then switched to a brisk walk when she realized that she'd spilled almost half of her soup.

Thus far in their young friendship, Aiko and Ty Lee had stayed separate in the yard: Ty Lee alone or trying to elicit answers from SoupGuard (it never worked if they weren't alone), and Aiko sitting beside Nishi. So, the young woman was very excited to meet the other Kyoshi Warrior, but as Ty Lee got close enough to see Nishi's light eyes narrowed in suspicion her enthusiasm started to wilt.

She stopped in front of the Kyoshis, knuckles white as she clutched her half-filled bowl. "Ty Lee this is Nishi, Nishi: Ty Lee," Aiko introduced them with a smile that looked forced.

"Hi," Nishi said abruptly, filling one syllable with more anger than Ty Lee thought was possible, and then turning to glare meaningfully at Aiko, who shot an apologetic glance at Ty Lee then leaned over to mumble in her friend's ear. The young acrobat shifted awkwardly to lean on one foot, unsure if she should sit down or not.

Ty Lee could only make out a few words, "..promised…different…betrayed." Nishi eyed her again, which made her wish that she had just stayed in her regular spot and tried to get SoupGuard to tell her when his birthday was. After a pause, the stern young woman sighed, looking defeated and motioned for Ty Lee to sit down on the ground beside them.

She did, and spent the first few awkward moments staring forlornly into her bowl, sneaking a glance here or there at Nishi and Aiko, both of whom were glancing anywhere but her, Aiko anxiously bouncing her knee.

"So…Nishi," Ty Lee said, followed by a pregnant pause. She knew that she had to be the one to talk; she had started the problems with the Kyoshis by helping Azula beat them, so it was up to her to start a friendship. Unfortunately, as she often did, Ty Lee started to speak before she had decided what to say, and now she was frozen like a deer in headlights while the Earth Kingdom girls' faces slowly changed into confusion at her very long pause.

"Er…" she cleared her throat and said the first thing that came to her mind, "When's your birthday?"

* * *

**A/N:** I have also finished chapter 12, but I have to let it stew for a while, then re-read it and edit it to make sure I like it in it's current state. n.n

Thank you to everyone who reviewed/favorited/commented/subscribed/read. =D


	12. Practice

**A/N: **Okay, I actually have up to chapter 14 written and outlines for the rest of the story, I just can't post them until I'm sure I don't want to change anything. n.n

Yes, I stole a scene out of A Fire Nation Flower. It's my story, I do what I want. xD

Enjoy!

* * *

**Practice**

**

* * *

**

"You're so lucky," Ty Lee said, wistfully, as she watched Princess Azula practice her fire bending. She wasn't jealous of the fact that the princess was a bender, Ty Lee had come to terms with the fact that she wasn't years ago; it was that she could fight and defend herself that she admired. Ty Lee was very quick at dodging or flipping but she didn't know the first thing about what to do if she ever got into some kind of trouble.

Ty Lee looked up from her place on the ground to see that the princess was staring at her expectantly, waiting for her to explain. "Oh, because you don't have to take music or dance lessons; my parents won't let me learn to fight," she said sadly.

Once, she'd asked her mother if she could join a dojo in the city that was for non-benders.

"_Oh sweetheart, those classes aren't for little girls," she shook her head._

"_It is so, Mommy, there are girls in them," she could clearly remember at least four females in the class when she peeked in through a window._

"_Yes, but they aren't noble girls. They are in there because they joined the army. A pretty young lady like you doesn't need to know how to fight," her mother explained, condescendingly._

Watching Princess Azula, who always had the best bending teachers and didn't even _have_ to learn to dance, sing _or_ play music, just proved that her mother was wrong. _Some _pretty young ladies _did_ get to do fun things.

"Mine won't either," Mai sad, dryly, "and the tsunghi horn is sooo boring."

Azula had stopped her training and was facing them, hands on her hips. "You're not very good at it either," she said. Then, after a few seconds in which she must have realized that what she said was offensive, she added "No offence."

Ty Lee giggled when Mai just flopped backwards to lie on the stairs where she was sitting, "Believe me, I know," she groaned. Over the years since they had met Azula, Mai had warmed up significantly to her. The quiet girl no longer took her insults personally, knowing that it was just Azula's personality. Mai still claimed she was only friends with Azula because she had to be, but Ty Lee could see different. Several times, she even invited Azula over to play with them without anyone forcing her, and she would even laugh at some of the princess' mean jokes.

Azula plopped down to sit beside them on the stairs and leaned back as well, "Why don't you teach yourself to fight then?" she asked, as though that solution had been staring them in the face, which it sort of was.

Ty Lee glanced at Mai, then back at Azula. "You know, I don't know." She said.

* * *

The next day after school, Ty Lee stood in the Capital City library with Mai beside her, scanning a row of scrolls about the various fighting styles of the world.

"This place smells weird," Mai commented. Indeed it did, it was the smell that Ty Lee had always associated with old ships or basements: dry and musty.

"But if I want to be able to teach myself to fight, this is the only place I could think of to go," Ty Lee explained.

"Why didn't you just ask Azula if you could go to the imperial library?" Ty Lee's hand froze as she was reaching to pull one of the scrolls down. The imperial library had the same smell as the rest of the palace: clean and flowery.

"Uhm…because I didn't want to get Azula in trouble by rummaging through her father's scrolls?" Ty Lee asked herself as much as Mai.

"You mean you didn't think of it," Mai smirked and sat down in one of the old, rickety chairs that teetered and creaked even under the weight of the thin girl.

"That too," Ty Lee said, sheepishly, turning back to the row of scrolls and hearing Mai chuckle behind her. "This is stupid," she said after several minutes, "It's like all they have is about bending."

Mai shrugged, "Maybe we could leave then?" She sounded hopeful.

"In a little while…" Ty Lee said, disappointed. Her first tactic had been pulling them off the shelves at random, so now she switched to a new plan: actually looking at the edges of the scrolls to see what they were about. All she found so far had to do with sword fighting and something promising about girls who used stealth tactics. Unfortunately, that turned out to be from the Earth Kingdom so not enough was known about it.

She groaned heavily, but suddenly Mai was behind her and pulling a scroll that Ty Lee had not noticed before, due to the tan stone on the end; her eyes were naturally drawn to the pink or yellow ones. Mai opened the scroll, scanned it and handed it to her. "Done," she said, tonelessly, "Now we can leave."

"What's this?" Ty Lee asked, unrolling it. Unlike the others that simply described the origins of whatever martial arts, this scroll was filled with detailed pictures and only small annotations about what exactly they meant. What was even more important, however, was that the illustrations were of a woman, and she didn't have any weapons. "Perfect," Ty Lee said, smiling and let herself be lead down to the checkout desk by an exasperated Mai.

The librarian peered over her nose, "I'm sorry. I can't let you girls check this out."

"Why!" Ty Lee asked. She had finally found something good and she wasn't even allowed to take it?

"It's not for little girls," the woman explained.

Ty Lee felt her face twist into a pout, and she knew a temper tantrum was coming, but Mai spoke up first. "Of course, ma'am; we'll just put it back where we found it and get something else," her tone was very sweet. It was one that Ty Lee had only heard her use when she was trying to get something from her parents and the young woman suspected that Mai had learned it from listening to Princess Azula.

It worked though; the elderly woman smiled kindly and handed the scroll back to the girls, who headed upstairs. Ty Lee was sulking when they reached the aisle where they'd found it. "We could have at least let _her_ put it back instead of walking all the way back up here," she whined.

Mai glanced around to make sure they were alone and then shoved the scroll into Ty Lee's book bag. The acrobat's widened, "We can't just take it!"

"Shush, someone will hear you. I don't want to have to listen to you whine about this for weeks," Mai rolled her eyes and Ty Lee frowned, thinking. She really _did_ want the scroll, and it wasn't at all fair that they weren't allowed to take it. After a minute of weighing her options (in a nutshell: learning to fight, or not) she sighed and nodded to her friend. "Good," Mai said, "Now let's go find something about a magical princess, or something, to check out instead so we can get out of here."

* * *

Several days later, Ty Lee had a surprise for her friends when they arrived at the monkey bars during their lunch break. "I have a surprise!" She exclaimed. Azula and Mai exchanged confused glances.

"What kind of surprise?" Mai asked.

"From that scroll! I learned something," Ty Lee smiled broadly. _They're gonna love it,_ she thought.

"The one you guys stole?" Azula asked. Ty Lee nodded and glanced around nervously, but the princess just smiled, "Let's see it."

"Okay, so I need one of you girls to try it on," she explained. There was a pause and at the look on Azula's face she knew she could never get her to do it, so Ty Lee turned to Mai with a pleading expression. "Maaiii."

"Uh, no thanks. I saw what that scroll was about and permanent disabilities aren't something I had planned for myself," she shrugged.

"It's not permanent unless I do it wrong!" Ty Lee whined.

"Exactly."

Ty Lee's shoulder slumped, defeated, but her thoughts on how to get Mai to help were interrupted when Azula called out to a girl sitting on the ground beside the wall. "Hey, your name's Lin right?" It was the chubby girl who sat behind Ty Lee in class; she nodded. "Could you come here for a minute?" Azula asked, using the sugary voice.

The girl stood in front of Azula, looking very nervous. "We just need your help with something. See, my friend here," she motioned to Ty Lee who waved cheerfully, "She wants to show us a move she learned, but she can't do it on us or we won't be able to see." Lin's eyes widened in fear, "Relax, it won't hurt, I promise."

"Uhm, okay…" the girl's voice was soft.

"So you'll help us then?"

"Yeah, I guess…" she glanced at Ty Lee.

"Great!" Azula said, her sickly sweet tone disappearing as she turned to Ty Lee, "Show us, then."

Ty Lee's grin returned and she stepped into one of the stances she practiced in her room; normally Ty Lee would be against using a classmate as a human guinea pig, but she was extremely confident in her abilities, and therefore not at all afraid that Lin could get hurt. She took a deep breath and tried to remember what the scroll said and visualized the illustrated chart of chi paths. When Ty Lee opened her eyes and stepped forward, Lin threw up her arms to cover her head. Ty Lee formed her fist the way the scroll said was best and quickly jabbed Lin on the back of her upper arm.

Just like Ty Lee expected, Lin's arm went limp. "YAY!" She cheered and bounced into the air, while Mai and Azula both clapped, surprised looks on their faces.

"W-what? How did you do that?" Lin asked, looking at her arm in horror, which dangled uselessly at her side.

"Secret!" Ty Lee said. She recalled the second part of the scroll and took Lin's wrist, extending her limp arm. The girl didn't struggle to get away, luckily, and Ty Lee poked a spot just above the crook of her elbow. Lin flexed her fingers, shock written on her face as the feeling came back to her arm.

"See I told you it wouldn't be permanent…oops," Ty Lee said, gloatingly to her friends, but then realized her mistake. Lin jerked her head to Azula with a terrified look on her face.

"Permanent!" She asked, rubbing her arm.

The princess shrugged. Lin looked like she wanted to hit her, but knew better, and fortunately the gong signifying that break was over rang in the distance. "Well looks like it's time to head back!" Ty Lee said cheerfully.

Lin huffed and stomped off, leaving Ty Lee to walk inside with her two friends. "That _was_ pretty cool," Mai said and Azula nodded with a smile that almost looked like it could be real.


	13. Lessons

**A/N:** It's really no surprise I don't get any sleep.

ANYWAY. The 50th reviewer prize goes to YoungFool! YAAAAY YoungFool!  
*Throws confetti and an autographed picture of Ty Lee at him.*  
(Autographed by me. Not Ty Lee. She's a cartoon. Jeez, YoungFool, don't look so disappointed.)

On with the story!

* * *

**Lessons**

**

* * *

**

"I don't think they're that hard to fight in," Nishi shrugged and took another sip of her soup, hiding a small grimace. Ty Lee raised her eyebrows, unbelieving; when _she_ was a pretend Kyoshi Warrior she found their heavy dresses and armor extremely difficult to move in. "Well, okay," Nishi continued, "it _was_ sort of a challenge at first, but you get used to it."

"I guess so; I always have to wear loose clothing though. Even in the circus I made sure my costumes were nice and flowy," Ty Lee sat on the ground across from her two new friends. It was hotter than usual, almost unbearable, and the girls had found a small patch of precious shade beneath one of the guard towers.

Aiko's eyes lit up, "You were in the circus? What did you do there?" she asked excitedly.

Ty Lee nodded and smiled, recalling the happiest days of her life, "I was a tight rope walker mostly, but I also joined other acts once in a while as an acrobat." Imagining the bright colors and cheering, happy crowds while she was surrounded by drab gray walls and broken, lonely faces just made Ty Lee's heart ache.

"Wow…that's so cool," Aiko smiled and glanced at her friend who nodded in agreement. "I went to the circus in Omashu once when I was little, and I bet it can't be much different than a circus in the Fire Nation. Tight rope walking is definitely impressive."

"It is! My family went when I was little too, that's what made me decide to run away and join," Ty Lee's chest felt tight when she thought about the happy memories of her former life.

"Is that where you learned to paralyze people's muscles? Like when you fought us," Nishi asked with a dark undertone to her voice. She was outwardly friendly to Ty Lee, but the young woman could tell that she was still suspicious.

"No, I taught myself that," Ty Lee explained, proudly. Chi blocking was one of the few things that Ty Lee had ever stuck with once she took it up, aside from the circus, and it was something she was very proud of. She knew that Nishi was trying to get something out of her, or bait her, but she didn't mind much. If she wanted to be friends with the Kyoshis Ty Lee knew that she had to try to be open and friendly and eventually they would be as well. She set her bowl down beside her and leaned back with the hope that the ground would be cool; it wasn't.

"What is 'that,' exactly?" Nishi asked, staring intently at the Fire Nation girl.

"Do you know what chi paths are?" She asked and an image of a human body with variously colored glowing lines running through it jumped into her mind, unbidden. The girls shook their heads and Ty Lee closed her eyes, trying to will away some of the heat. "It's the way the chi flows through your body. If I block the energy flow to your muscles you can't move them," in her imagination she cut off one of the glowing lines, severing the connection, and watched the rest of the pathway turn gray.

Ty Lee felt a drop of sweat slide down her hair line and her mind started to wonder off, her attention span shortened by the higher than usual temperatures. _It must be close to the end of the summer then…which means Sozin's comet is almost here._ Quickly she pushed that thought out of her mind and tried to pull the chi paths back. She knew that if Avatar Aang had any hope of winning the war that he would have to face Ozai before the comet came. The young woman didn't even want to think of what would happen if Aang lost; at this point he was the world's only hope.

"And you taught yourself that?" Aiko sounded surprised.

"Yes ma'am!" she said, forcing her normal, cheerful tone and opening her eyes.

Aiko looked impressed, but Nishi's eyes were hungry, "Do you think you could show us some of the chi blocking?" she asked, trying to sound innocent, but Ty Lee had had plenty of experience with falsely innocent, manipulative voices.

_So, that's what she was trying to get out of me,_ Ty Lee thought, _I guess it can't hurt to show her a little, though._

"Only if you call me Simu Ty Lee!" She exclaimed with another ear to ear smile.

Aiko giggled, and despite her distrust, Nishi's mouth twitched up into a small smile and she tried to hold in a laugh. "Okay, Simu Ty Lee," she said, setting her bowl aside as she and Aiko stood, "Teach us!"

Ty Lee forced herself up, suddenly regretting that she had agreed to do something which entailed moving in any way, shape or form. "Ahem," she said in a very serious voice, putting on a pair of pretend spectacles, "First of all, in the Fire Nation we bow to our teachers." Ty Lee couldn't resist a small poke to Aiko's side, eliciting a giggle and a small chuckle from Nishi.

Both girls bowed and she quickly tried to gather all of her knowledge about chi blocking into one place in her brain, so she could explain it without stumbling over her thoughts. "So, like I said. Your energy flows through your body and chi blocking is about cutting off that energy, okay?"

"Yes," the girls chorused.

"So, you have to be careful because it can be dangerous. Like you have to poke _really_ lightly or else the block could be permanent…well, not_ too_ lightly cause then nothing will happen." Nishi's eyes widened, but Ty Lee continued, "And there are things called vital pressure points that if you cut them off can be fatal…but I won't teach you about those yet, it's too risky," she smiled brightly but the Earth Kingdom girls exchanged dubious glances.

"OH and you have to form your first like this," Ty lee remembered, and held up her hand poking out the knuckle of her index finger. "That's the best way to make sure that you don't hit hard enough to permanently seal off the channel."

"How so?" Aiko asked, looking at her own fist which she had made to match Ty Lee's.

"Because it's not quite sharp enough to go far enough in; especially if whoever you hit has a lot of muscle or fat around the pressure point, you know?"

"I think," Aiko replied although her face was still perplexed. Nishi, on the other hand, just looked fascinated.

Ty Lee struggled to find another way to explain it. "Well, if you hold your hand like this instead," she extended her fingers and held them very close together, creating a point with her hand, "_That's_ sharp enough that you could do some damage."

The girls nodded and Ty Lee went on, "Now, the best way to do this is to actually practice on someone," she flashed her toothy smile; she liked the feeling of teaching others.

Aiko let out a nervous laugh and Nishi's excitement seemed to fade, "But what if someone gets hurt?" Nishi asked.

"No one will get hurt, I promise. Just do it exactly the way I show you," Ty Lee smiled reassuringly, "Pupil Aiko! Please come to the front of the class," she motioned to her side of the shady area and Aiko stepped up, sporting an anxious expression. Ty Lee instructed Aiko to hold her arm out and she put her finger lightly in the hollow between Aiko's collar bone and her shoulder. "This is one of the most useful pressure points to hit in a fight because, even though they can still move their hands and fingers, that's not much use without any control of the shoulder muscle. Also, it's pretty safe to practice on because the actual chi path is wayyyy back in there between the bones, and it's hard to completely block on accident."

Without giving any warning Ty Lee poked Aiko's shoulder in the place where her finger was resting and the Kyoshi's arm collapsed. "Hey!" Aiko exclaimed.

"Sorry, it's just for demonstration," Ty Lee smiled sheepishly, "It's the best way to show you where it is on another person." The acrobat glanced at Nishi to see her reaction: excitement, but no more suspicion or anger, which was good. However, the girl couldn't help but blush out of embarrassment when she noticed SoupGuard staring at her with his head tilted to the side and his mouth (the only part of his face she could see) pulled into a confused grimace, no doubt wondering why she was poking Kyoshis in the shade of the guard tower. She cleared her throat and turned away, doing her best to ignore him. She ran her finger along Aiko's back until it found the little hollow next to her shoulder blade. With another poke, Aiko's feeling came back.

"Wow, I didn't know you could just undo it like that," Nishi said as Aiko shook her arm, trying to get rid of the tingling that Ty Lee knew she felt.

"Yep! It's like re-opening a switch. Widening chi paths can be used for healing," she smiled and felt her heart loosen somewhat when Nishi even smiled back. Sadly, the smile was short lived; it vanished at Ty Lee's next words. The young woman turned to Aiko, "Okay! Now try it on Nishi!"


	14. Goodbye

**Goodbye**

**

* * *

**

Ty Lee groaned. The young woman was standing in her bedroom, staring at her reflection in the full length mirror. Mai sat on her bed, wearing a long, bell sleeved, black silk dress and flipping through a book with a bowl of fire flakes beside her.

"I changed my mind, I don't want to go anymore…" she whined, referring to the banquet in honor of Princess Azula's graduation from the Royal Fire Academy for Girls.

Mai barely glanced up, "You said a minute ago that you couldn't wait to go. You've been gushing all day." It was true; Ty Lee was very excited for her friends. She, however, had spent too much time practicing her gymnastics or chi blocking and not enough time studying. She wasn't graduating and Mai thought it was strange how little that bothered her friend.

"Yeah…but…look at me…" Ty Lee grimaced and pinched her hip. "I'm...fat." She glanced at the pink, embroidered dress that was hanging on the door to her wardrobe, which Xiulan had leant her for the occasion. She _was_ excited; the young woman treasured any opportunity to wear extravagant clothes and fancy makeup, but over the last year Ty Lee had undergone a growth spurt, and she felt awkward in her new body.

"You're not fat," Mai recited tonelessly, munching on another handful of fire flakes. The girls had the same conversation at least every other day.

"I've gained like 20 pounds, Mai! Look!" She motioned, exasperated, to her hips. She was careful to avoid mentioning the other area she had gained weight in. She wasn't used to it, and it just made her self-conscious.

"Really," Mai said, her eyes not leaving the book. "I guess I was wrong, Ty Lee. You _are_ fat."

The acrobat's eyes widened in shock and she turned to Mai, a horrified look plastered on her face. "WHAT?" she gasped.

Mai couldn't handle it anymore, she let her lips curl into a small smile (from her, that may as well have been a grin) and finally looked up to meet Ty Lee's eyes. Ty Lee relaxed but did her best to glare at her friend, who turned to face her, dangling her legs off the bed. "Would you please give it a rest? Spirits, you _aren't_ fat and if you say it one more time I'm going to come over there and chop your braid off."

"Fine…" she replied, one hand clutching her long hair and the other propped on her hip.

Luckily, she didn't have long to sulk. There was a quick knock at the door before it was opened by Hsiu-Mei. "Do you still want me to do your hair?" she asked before glancing at the dress, which was still hanging up, "You're not even dressed yet?"

"No…" she pouted, arms crossed. "I'm not going."

Her sister groaned, rolling her eyes. Hsiu-Mei shut the door and whisked past Mai to snatch the dress off the wardrobe. "Get ready. You _have_ to go, the princess invited you," she shoved the gown into Ty Lee's arms and gave her a little nudge behind the dressing screen.

Ty Lee sighed loud enough for the girls on the other side of the paper screen to hear, looking sadly at the beautiful dress and feeling the smooth silk slide over her hands. _I guess I do have to go…to say goodbye to Azula, _she thought. Ty Lee felt her heart clench; she would miss her friends so much, but there wasn't anything left for her in Capital City.

* * *

"Stop it," Mai admonished, snatching Ty Lee's hand, which had been creeping up to cover her cleavage again, "You look fine."

Ty Lee made a dubious sound. "Let's just go find Azula," she said, glancing around the palace's huge banquet hall. The room was packed with various nobles and important military persons; Ty Lee couldn't help but note how very few kids their age were present.

Apparently Mai had realized the same thing, "It looks like this party is more for FireLord Ozai's friends than for Azula's," she said.

Ty Lee nodded to her friend then jumped when a boy popped up in front of her. He looked about her age but he was very skinny and had a prominent nose, "Hi," he said brightly, sporting a huge, goofy grin.

"Er…hi," she looked at Mai, who shrugged. Going to an all-girls school, the only boys that Ty Lee had any a chance to interact with were Zuko (before he left) and her sisters' boyfriends.

"My name's Cheng," he said, still grinning. Ty Lee was acutely aware that he was almost a full head shorter than her, "What's yours?"

The young woman blinked slowly. _Quick, Ty Lee, think of a reason to go. Uhm, I have to go to the bathroom? No, too obvious. I have to meet my friend somewhere specific?_ _Perfect, then when we find Azula, he will be too scared to talk to us again. _For once, Ty Lee was grateful for the fear that her friend inspired in people.

Unfortunately, due to her nerves, Ty Lee fumbled over her excuse, and it came out sounding far more harsh than she had anticipated. "Uhm…I just remembered that have to go stand over here now," she grabbed Mai's upper arm and dragged her over to a huge table stacked full of fancy desserts, and away from the confused looking boy.

Mai let out a small, uncharacteristic giggle as she examined a tray of pastries, "It wasn't very nice to just leave him like that."

"He waff weiwd, Mai!" Ty Lee said though a giant bite of apple tart.

"I thought you were worried about being fat," Mai commented, eyeing the glazed delicacy in Ty Lee's hand. It earned her a glare, but she only smirked. "He just likes you."

"Who likes her?" A familiar voice drawled from over Ty Lee's shoulder. She turned to see the princess, and was shocked. In all the years of their friendship, Ty Lee had never seen Azula wear a dress. Now, the princess was draped in red and gold, her hair curled and secured into an intricate hairstyle by the flame insignia comb that signified her political position. Noticing her friends' surprised faces Azula frowned, "What?"

With a gulp, Ty Lee swallowed the rest of her tart before she spoke, "You look so pretty, Azula!"

"I do, don't I?" Azula said, examining her painted nails. "So who likes you?" She leaned against the table, looking almost as bored as Mai did.

"It's this boy named Cheng who came over to flirt with her," Mai explained.

Azula's face cracked into a malicious smile, "Really? Where is he?" she scanned the crowd.

Ty Lee could sense danger. Cheng was still standing awkwardly where she had left him; at that point he stole a glance over to her and her friends. Her heart jumped and her only thought was that she had to stop Azula from noticing him. She could still vividly remember how her friend had embarrassed Mai and Zuko when they were younger, "I guess he left!" She said quickly.

Mai could also see where this was going, and chimed in, in an effort to distract the princess, "This party's so boring."

"You're telling me," Azula said, her voice annoyed, and Ty Lee sighed with relief. Another boy caught Ty Lee's eye from across the room, this one significantly taller and broader than Cheng. He winked; she felt her face get hot and her trademark toothy smile reappeared.

"Why don't we go somewhere else, then?" Mai asked.

"Yeah, I really need to talk to you two," Ty Lee said as she tore her eyes away from the cute boy, remembering why she had to go to the banquet in the first place.

"About what?" Azula didn't really sound interested, but someone had to ask.

"Let's go somewhere and I'll tell you."

"Yes. _Please_. Let's go somewhere, anywhere. All these rich people are making me ill," Mai moaned.

* * *

Several minutes later the girls had finally managed to escape the party (Azula was detained every four or five feet to be congratulated), and were sitting in Ozai's empty war room. There was no fire burning in front of the throne making the room feel hollow and spooky.

"What did you want to talk to us about?" Mai asked with a small frown on her lips. In the dark, empty chamber, their voices echoed eerily.

"Well…uhm," she picked at the one of the silver butterflies embroidered on her dress then glanced up to examine the faces of her best friends.

Mai sat on the stairs curled over in a slouch and twirling a small knife. Her eyebrows were knit together with worry. Azula was seated on Ozai's throne, leaning back on her hands with her legs crossed in front of her and a small, unnerving smile on her lips. Azula raised her eyebrows expectantly. "Yes, do tell. Although, I'm sure I already know what you're going to say."

Ty Lee had been focusing on remembering the speech she practiced in front of the mirror all morning, but Azula's comment threw off her concentration, "What?"

"Oh, for Agni's sake; the circus is back in town and tonight is their last night. You've been telling us since we were little how your dream was to be a tight rope walker. You flunked out of school and don't even care. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what you were going to tell us, Ty Lee." As Azula spoke she counted off the reasons on her fingers, ending with a small shrug and letting her arm fall.

Mai's head jerked up, her eyes as wide as saucers, "No. You are _not_ running away to join the circus."

"Yes I am, Mai! It's my _destiny_!" She exclaimed, (Azula: "See?"). She took a deep breath and launched into her speech, "I know I usually don't think things through all the way," her friends nodded, "But this time I really did. Ever since I was little, gymnastics has been the only thing I'm good at. Don't make that face, Mai, you know it's true," Mai looked off to the side.

Surprisingly, it was Azula who interrupted her, "You're pretty good at chi blocking too. I mean with some more practice, that is."

Ty Lee blinked, "Thanks. So, uhm, anyway. I just don't fit in here. I'll never be as good at dancing or singing or playing Pai Sho as my sisters are, and I'll never be as smart. If I stay here, I can never be anyone but Hsiu-Mei's, or Jing's, or Lien's or whoever's little sister. I know you two don't get it, but this is the only way I can be my own person. It's my dream and I'm going to miss home, but I _have_ to go." Mai bowed her head, letting her bangs hide her eyes and even Azula's smirk had disappeared.

"I do understand, Ty Lee," yet again, Azula surprised her. "You feel like there's nothing you can do to ever be good enough. That you'll never be able to outshine your br—sisters," Azula cleared her throat. "So, you have to leave to make your own life."

Pretending not to notice the slipup, the pink acrobat smiled gratefully at Azula, "Exactly." In any argument or heated discussion, Azula was the rarely one to stand up for her or agree with her (or with Mai for that matter), and it felt strange, but not in a bad way. Ty Lee looked to Mai, who had her arms wrapped around herself, her eyes still hidden. "Mai?"

"We'll miss you," she said and by the way her voice wavered, Ty Lee could tell how hard it was for the girl to maintain her monotone.

"I'll miss you guys too," Ty Lee felt her eyes well up and she pulled Mai into a hug. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Azula examining her nails again, with a small frown on her face. Ty Lee ran to hug her next and the princess froze; Ty Lee didn't take it personally when it took a few seconds for her to return the embrace.

* * *

Another ten minutes later, Ty Lee leapt over her garden wall and snatched the satchel she had stashed behind a bush. Quickly, she changed into a pair of loose pants and a wrap top, taking down the fancy hair style that Hsiu-Mei had spent so much time on and, with practiced motions, expertly re-braided her hair. She folded her sister's dress neatly on the door step, along with a note explaining why she was leaving, but not specifically where she would go.

Ty Lee took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She felt like she would burst with excitement or die of sadness at the same time; it was a strange sensation. At a jog she made her way to the outskirts of town, where the circus was set up. It couldn't have happened on a better night; since the banquet would last into the early morning, her parents would expect her to stay the night at Azula's, and wouldn't realize she was gone until the next day.

Ty Lee stopped in front of the little camp. Several people who were in the process of taking down the big top, turned to stare at her. She took another calming breath and wiped away one more tear, then walked straight up to the man wearing the bright coat of the ringmaster.

* * *

**A/N:** Thank you again, to anyone and everyone who has read this far. n.n


	15. Selfish

**A/N: ***Sniffles.* Only about three (maybe four) chapters left in this story, and then I have to move on to the next epic... *stifles another sob.*

You guys have been great...and I heart you. n.n

* * *

**Selfish**

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* * *

**

"No, a little harder than that," Ty Lee instructed. Aiko was in the process of repeatedly punching Ty Lee's palm in order to learn the proper force to for chi blocking. The girls stood in the very alcove where they had first met, their mops lying forgotten on the ground. "Okay, that's good. Keep it up so you can get used to it," Ty Lee smiled.

Aiko punched once more, then without warning, let her shoulders slump and dropped her fists. The determined look that she usually wore while training seemed to melt off, "I dunno how much longer I can do this, Ty Lee," she said; her voice was weak and defeated.

"What do you mean? We just started," Ty Lee tilted her head to the side, her lips curved down in a frown.

"I know…I don't mean chi blocking. I mean _this;_ this whole thing," she exclaimed, waving her arms in frustration. She did her best to keep her voice a whisper, but Ty Lee could see how upset she was by the way her lips were shaking. "What are we supposed to do? Just stay here and hope we don't die of malnutrition or disease?"

"I-I don't know," Ty Lee whispered, hanging her head. She was ashamed to admit it, now that she saw how Aiko really felt, but the last few days had been her happiest since Mai was taken. The young woman savored the feeling of having other people to talk to and interact with, even if Nishi was still a little cold, and she loved passing on her knowledge of chi blocking.

"I can't live like this!" Aiko's voice was a strained, high pitched whisper and her eyes began to fill with angry tears, "This isn't the life I wanted! This isn't the life I worked for! This isn't why I trained for hours a day! I wanted to help people, I wanted to make a difference, not just rot away in a jail cell!" She stomped her foot and Ty Lee waited to see if she was finished before she spoke.

"You're right," She whispered, stepping forward and putting a comforting hand on Aiko's trembling shoulder; she wasn't sure what to say, but her past experience showed her that usually, when someone was angry, all they really wanted was someone to listen to them and tell them they had a right to be upset. It was then, as Aiko covered her face, breathing hard and trying not to cry, Ty Lee felt inexplicably embarrassed.

_I don't have anything to be ashamed of,_ she told herself, frowning. She rubbed her hand in small circles along Aiko's back. _Maybe it's because I was happy about teaching the Kyoshis chi blocking? _An instant after that thought, Ty Lee shook it out of her head. It didn't make sense; the other girls enjoyed that too, it gave them all something to focus on and something to put their energy into so they didn't let themselves become complacent or dead inside.

Aiko took a deep breath and pulled her hands away from her face. She smiled weakly at Ty Lee, who tried her best to force one in return, still confused about her emotions. Unfortunately, her new friend noticed. "What's wrong?" She asked, wiping her face.

"I don't know…I feel weird," she paused to try to gather her thoughts. "You were talking about how you wanted to help people, and then I suddenly felt….Oh." The revelation hit Ty Lee like a brick wall. Her whole life, she had only been focused on doing whatever made her happy; she blended in with her sisters, and so she ran away to the circus to stand out. _My entire life I've only worried about myself and no one else,_ Ty lee realized, hanging her head.

Up to that point, Ty Lee had secretly been hoping that the Avatar would overthrow Ozai and Azula, just so she could go home, but now she knew it should have been for a different reason; the same reason that Zuko must have seen that led him to betray their country. _There's a war going on, people are dying, and not just Fire Nation people. _Nishi and Aiko were evidence that the Earth Kingdom wasn't really backward or uncivilized like Ty Lee had always been taught and now she was ashamed that she had been so focused on not being part of a matched set that she missed what was really going on.

"Ty Lee? What is it?" Aiko leaned forward to catch her eye, frowning with worry.

"I'm so selfish," she replied so softly her voice was barely audible.

"What?"

"I just realized how much of my life was wrong, and how selfish I've been," she explained, dazed.

"'Wrong'?" Aiko asked, tilting her eyebrow up.

"Yeah...In the Fire Nation, they taught us that the war was so we could spread our greatness with the rest of the world. I just realized that that's completely wrong, and how many people have been killed or hurt because of us and how all the things I cared about, even though they seemed important at the time, were just silly compared to that," Ty Lee took a deep breath, but was surprised when Aiko actually giggled.

"That doesn't make you selfish...but...did they really tell you that?" she asked, disbelieving.

Ty Lee nodded and Aiko giggled again. She knew that she had to do _something_ to fix it; now that she saw, there was no way for her to un-see. She knew that if she ever got out of prison, there was no way she could ever go back to the circus. She had to do _something_ to fix the world, and in the process, herself. Obviously, there was no way she could do that from the Boiling Rock. "We need to figure out a way to get out of here," she determinedly told her laughing friend.

Aiko's lips stretched into a smile, "But how? With the lake…" She sighed and her smile slipped off to be replaced by the former desperation.

"I don't know…but I promise that we'll figure something out. We can talk to Nishi tonight at dinner. Okay?" She patted Aiko's shoulder again. The girl smiled weakly and nodded. "Now, if you want to be able to fight your way out with no weapons…you need to practice your hits!" The young acrobat did her best imitation of a smile (which was actually pretty good) and Aiko, reluctantly, stepped back into her stance.

* * *

After probably another hour of silent practice, to the point where their stomachs were growling and they couldn't wait to be told it was dinnertime, the girls were interrupted. "Uh…what _exactly_ are you doing?" Ty Lee gasped in surprise and she saw Aiko jump beside her.

Ty Lee had been so caught up in the revelation of her own selfishness, (the words _'I have to do something,' _were running through her brain on a loop), that she hadn't even heard SoupGuard pushing the dinner cart past their alcove. For the first time since they had met, Ty Lee was extremely unsettled that she couldn't see his face when they talked and now his helmet looked menacing and cold.

"Nothing," the prisoners said simultaneously, Ty Lee sounding nervous and Aiko angry.

SoupGuard's helmet turned towards the Kyoshi and he shifted awkwardly, clutching the handle of his cart. "Well…okay. Get back to work I guess," his voice was soft again and the command fell flat.

Then, inspiration struck. "Wait!' Ty Lee called urgently, stepping forward and placing a hand on her friend's arm to stop him. SoupGuard turned to stare at her, and she imagined he might look surprised, but couldn't be sure. "Uhm…You said you get vacation two weekends a month, right?"

"Yeah?" his voice was suspicious.

"How do they decide who gets to go?" She tried to make her voice innocent, and to form her face into a curious expression instead of excited.

Unfortunately, she could tell it didn't work when he only shook his head, "I can't tell you."

So, Ty Lee dropped the act and put on her whiny voice, "Why not?"

"Uh, Ty Lee?" Aiko said from behind but the acrobat waved her off, pouting at SoupGuard's helmet.

He sighed, "Fine…it's based on our ID number. It alternates weeks"

"Hmm…okay," she thought for a moment. "How do you get off the Island? The gondola?" He groaned.

"I can't tell you. I see where you're going with this," his voice was sad, and the usual meekness was missing.

"What do you mean, 'you see where I'm going with this?'" Ty Lee's voice was rising, but not under her own control.

"Yeah, I see what you're doing. If you think I'm still going to let you fold laundry tomorrow you're wrong." SoupGuard hung his head and turned back to his cart, then continued softly, "You should go back to work." Ty Lee felt her face heat up. Had she really been that transparent? She knew that she wasn't going to win any battles of wit anytime soon, but she didn't think that he could see through her so easily. She _had _been struck with the idea of knicking a few female guard uniforms the next time she and Aiko were on laundry duty; then all they would have to find were the helmets and the could get off the island with the guards.

Aiko was staring at the scene, perplexed and unsure what to say, but she grasped Ty Lee's upper arm and tried to pull her back to the mopping. "Don't," she whispered, but the young woman shook her off once again and stepped right up to SoupGuard's helmet, standing on her tip toes so that she could meet his eyes.

"What? Are you going to go tell the warden so we can get thrown into solitary like my best friend?" She was close enough to see through the small slit that his eyes were dark brown, almost black and now he looked off to the side nervously, but refused to take a step backwards. "Are you?" Ty Lee knew that the louder her voice got, the more likely it was that another guard would come by, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"I have to…" SoupGuard still sounded sad.

"You can't tell. It's one thing if you won't help us, but you _can't_ just tell!"

"I-I know that you…well…I'm sorry. I really need this job…you don't get it."

Ty Lee felt something break in the back of her head, and her temper burst through, "NO. _You_ don't get it. 'You need this job'?" she mocked, "BOO-HOO." When Ty Lee realized that she was starting to cry out of rage, it only made her angrier. "It's not like we even asked you for anything! This is my whole life and all you care about is your job!" Ty Lee stomped her foot and hit him hard in the chest with her palms.

Finally, Aiko interceded and grabbed Ty Lee's wrists to pull her away from SoupGuard before she did anything she regretted. He didn't say anything, but his mouth was drooping. The acrobat stood, breathing hard next to her friend. She felt hurt rising up in her chest, she really thought the man was her friend and now he was going to give her up to the warden.

_I should really stop trusting people so easily,_ Ty Lee thought, angrily remembering Azula as she ripped the chopsticks out of her hair and threw them at SoupGuard. Only one of them hit him, bouncing off his arm, but Ty Lee was too upset to aim properly.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, returning to his work and pushing his cart away, shoulders slumped, to the sound of Ty Lee's muffled angry sobs.

* * *

"Your friend?" Nishi asked, incredulously.

"He was," she was sitting in front of Aiko, who was finger-brushing out her hair in order to braid it for her. Ty Lee didn't think to ask, but it turned out that Nishi had a spare piece of leather.

"He's the one that gave you the tart, huh?" Aiko asked. Ty Lee nodded, sadly, and the Kyoshi continued, "Uhm…sorry about that, by the way." It took Ty Lee a minute before she understood, but then she remembered the first time she talked to the girls after they were transferred to the Boiling Rock, and the rude comment they threw at her.

"It's alright," she sighed and a moment of silence stretched between them before Ty Lee spoke again. "I'm really sorry, guys," she started, her eyes tearing up again, "I had to ask to know how it worked…"

"It's okay," Aiko, reassured her as she tied off the braid, but Nishi was silently staring at her slippers.

"Yeah…" Ty Lee's stomach grumbled and she shot a glare in the general direction of the food line; she had refused to go get her soup for the night, but was starting to regret it. She let out a huge, deep sigh and flopped over to lie on the ground beside Aiko. She tried to focus on anything but being locked up alone in her cell, or the vague memory of the way roast turkey-duck tasted.

"He hasn't told the warden, yet," Nishi said after a moment.

"But he will after dinner," Ty Lee could still hear SoupGuard calmly saying that he had to.

"I don't know about you girls, but I think we should go out with a bang," Nishi said, smiling deviously.

"Yes! I can practice my chi blocking," Aiko said, in a mock happy tone. Ty Lee closed her eyes and smiled a little bit but, remembering the lock down, she didn't know how she could possibly stand to be alone all day every day. The false enthusiasm of the group started to wilt, and Ty Lee curled up into a ball, her eyes shut tight while she tried to recall the exact placement of the furniture in her parents' house.

The hurt came back, full force, when she realized that she couldn't remember the color of the rug in the family room, but she pushed it back down. _Think about what you'll do after, Ty Lee, not what happened before,_ she told herself. That brought back her new mantra, and she almost mumbled the words '_I have to do something,'_ before she was distracted by the Kyoshis.

"Hey, look!" She heard Nishi exclaim, but she couldn't really bring herself to care enough to 'look.'

But then Aiko flicked her ear, "Ty Lee!" and she finally opened her eyes, to look where the girls were pointing, Aiko with a grin and Nishi smiling hesitantly. The steel door to the yard was open, and being led back in by one of the guards was…

"MAI!" Ty Lee shrieked, jumping to her feet and racing across the courtyard. Mai let out a small 'oof' as her best friend barreled into her, nearly toppling both of them to the ground. Ty Lee wrapped her in a tight bear hug, "I missed you so much!"

After she got over her initial shock of being tackled, Mai returned the embrace. "I missed you too," she said quietly.

* * *

**A/N:** One more...I wasn't quite sure about the flow of this chapter. Thoughts?


	16. The Circus

**A/N:** Another fun fact: I went to high school with a girl who ran away to work in the carnival. I still talk to her on facebook. n.n

On with the story! I would really appreciate any feedback about what you liked or didn't like!

Thank you to Idreamofivan to helping me fix some things that don't make sense. n.n

* * *

**The Circus**

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**

Ty Lee sighed, leaning against one of the supports for the big top and allowed herself to slide down to sit in the dirt. She glanced over at her broom, fallen on the ground beside her. Mr. Tsou, the ringmaster, told her that she had to work her way up; she had to prove that she could work hard and do the dirty work before he would let her be in the show.

It was three weeks and nine performances later and Ty Lee was still cleaning up the trash left behind by patrons. She was beginning to wonder if she would ever get a chance to show what she could do, or if Mr. Tsou had ever planned to let her into the show at all.

There was a 'whoosh' of flames and the sound of the audience cheering from inside the tent; Ty Lee pulled her knees up to her chest and covered her head with her arms. _Maybe Mai was right, and I shouldn't have come here,_ she thought, _but how stupid would I look if I went home now? Jing would never let me hear the end of it._ Ty Lee could almost hear her sisters' voices in her head, mocking her for leaving. She knew that it was too late to go home, even if she _didn't_ ever get to be a performer.

"Hey, are you okay?" someone asked from Ty Lee's right. She raised her head, luckily she wasn't crying, to see a boy who was perhaps a year or so older than her. He had a large box of souvenirs propped up on his shoulder; _Probably getting ready for the end of the show_ Ty Lee thought. She had seen him around the circus, usually working the ticket booth or concession stand and she felt her face get hot at the sight of the boy's high cheek bones, toned arms and deep tan.

She hoped he couldn't see her pink cheeks in the low light. "Yeah, I'm fine," she told him.

"Girls who sit all curled up hiding their faces aren't usually okay," he said with a lopsided smile, setting the box off to the side and plopping down to sit beside her, "My name's Cikuq." _Weird name,_ Ty Lee thought. She realized that he was holding out his hand but Ty Lee just stared at it, unsure of what she was supposed to do. With a nervous expression he pulled his hand back, placed his fists together and bowed in the traditional style (as well as he could from a sitting position).

With a smile, she returned the gesture, "I'm Ty Lee."

"Well it's very nice to meet you, Ty Lee," he smiled again. "How long have you been with the circus?"

"Just a few weeks…" the girl trailed off, and avoided admitting that she had actually counted the days; it had been 23. "I joined to be a performer but Mr. Tsou said that I have to start at the bottom," she frowned and not even Cikuq's good looks distracted her from the sinking feeling in her chest.

"So that's why you're so unhappy?" Ty Lee nodded slowly, "I've been here for a while, and I see all kinds of people come around, hoping to be famous, but not very many of them actually get to be in the show."

"Uh, is that supposed to make me feel better?" Ty Lee raised an eyebrow and did her best not to cry.

"Well, not really," Cikuq chuckled awkwardly, "I guess I just meant that you have to work really hard and never give up if you want Mr. Tsou to notice you."

Ty Lee nodded, vowing that no matter what happened she would make sure that Mr. Tsou saw her talent. There was a long moment of silence between the two young people, before Ty Lee finally decided to break it, "Did you want to be in the show when you came here?"

"No, I don't have any talent," he smiled his lopsided smile again. "I just wanted somewhere to go. Somewhere anonymous, you know?"

Ty Lee nodded and couldn't help but notice his eyes were blue. Something clicked in the back of her head: _darker skin, b__lue eyes, weird name, plus the thing he did instead of a bow_, "You're not from the Fire Nation, are you?"

"Well, it's not something I usually tell people I just met…but you seem…I dunno, special." He trailed off and looked up at her with puppy eyes. _Special,_ she thought, dazed. No one had ever thought she was special before, although this was one of the first times she'd met anyone who didn't know about her six older sisters. "You won't tell anyone, will you?" Ty Lee shook her head, wondering how someone from the Water Tribe could stay hidden in the circus for so long. _I guess they do travel a lot…_ she thought.

"Thanks, Ty Lee," he said with another winning smile. There was a huge cheer from inside the tent, and Ty Lee could vaguely hear Mr. Tsou yelling something. "Well, I guess it's time to get back to work," Cikuq said, standing up and dusting himself off.

Ty Lee did the same, picking up her fallen broom. "I'm glad I met you, Cikuq," she said, flashing her own toothy smile, "Even if your name_ is_ hard to pronounce."

He chuckled, "I'm glad I met you too, Ty Lee." He smiled again, gave a small wave and made his way back over to the area where the souvenir stand was set up. The young woman sighed wistfully, and didn't even mind when all she did for the rest of the night was sweep up flyers and fire flake buckets.

* * *

"At least let me show you what I can do!" Ty Lee complained to Mr. Tsou one morning, another two weeks after she met Cikuq, while the circus was setting up for that weekend's show.

"I told you, Tai Lin—"

"TY LEE."

"I told you, Ty Lee, you have to work your way up," the middle aged man shook his finger at her and then turned back to the man to which he was speaking before the young woman interrupted them.

She sighed in exasperation, her hands on her hips, and struggled to think of some way she could show him how much talent she had. Her face spread into a huge, toothy smile as she watched several people hanging a banner over a rope that stretched between one of the stands and the big top. From her position, at least, Ty Lee thought the rope looked thick enough to support her weight.

"HEY," she shouted to Mr. Tsou to get his attention before she rushed at full speed towards several boxes placed next to the big top. She leapt forward, placing both her hands on one box, flipping her body in a wide arc and pushing off hard with her palms to get as much height as she could to land on her feet on the next, taller pile of boxes. With another leap she grasped the rope, whipping her body around to land, on her feet, on top of the small pole where the banner was tied off. Pain ripped through her palms from the rope burn, but the girl ignored it, extending her arms out behind her for balance, and rushed straight across the top of the sign.

Everyone below had stopped working and was watching the young woman show off. Ty Lee smiled widely and, upon reaching the other side, she jumped off, grasping the rope again and wincing in pain. She let her momentum push her high into the air and did a quick flip before she landed, gracefully, on her feet.

She turned to Mr. Tsou with a smug smile. His jaw had dropped in surprise; evidently he hadn't believed the girl when she said she was good, "Well…Ty Lee. I guess we could let you try out your act tonight, just to see how you do in front of a crowd."

Ty Lee almost jumped up and down but restrained herself, instead bowing politely and thanking the ring master before she bounced off to find Cikuq. The two of them had become close friends; they spent almost all of their free time talking or trying to play Pai Sho (neither of them was very good) and Ty Lee's small crush had turned into actual affection for him.

_He'll be so happy!_ She thought, grinning ear to ear as she examined the raw blisters on her hands. After spending several minutes searching, she failed to find him in any of their usual spots. _I guess I'll have to look for him later tonight,_ she thought, sadly returning to the area where her caravan was parked, so she could practice her act. Ty Lee was about to go in search of a rope, when she heard someone speak.

"You're not from the Fire Nation, are you?" came a young woman's voice from the wooded area behind where the circus was set up. Ty Lee felt her interest spike and she peeked around a caravan to see Cikuq talking to a young woman with long, black hair.

"Well, it's not something I usually tell people I just met…but you seem…I dunno, special." he trailed off and looked up at the with puppy eyes. Ty Lee narrowed her eyes, the corner of her lip twitching. He had completely played her and anger reared up in her heart before any kind of hurt had a chance to.

"AHEM," she interrupted before the blushing girl could talk and stepped around the caravan with her hands on her hips.

"Ty Lee!" Cikuq's smile faltered a little bit and he glanced around like he was looking for somewhere to run.

"Ty Lee?" The girl asked with a raised eyebrow. Cikuq glanced between the two girls.

"I don't know how I believed you," Ty Lee groaned, "I thought _you_ were special, but you're just a loser." She smiled brightly, took two steps forward and jabbed her knuckle into the area right beneath his solar plexus.

"I'm sor— what the…" The boy said before he collapsed, unable to move his arms and legs. Ty Lee refused to let herself admit how hurt she was; he was the first boy she had ever _really_ liked. So, instead she forced her mind to focus on the fact that was the night she would finally be a performer in the circus.

"Wow…" the dark haired girl said. "Uhm, my name's Lien," she said smiling weakly and stepping over Cikuq's twitching form to follow Ty Lee back towards the clearing where the big top was being erected.

"Really? That's my sister's name," Ty Lee forced her best fake smile, which apparently passed as genuine. "I've never seen you around before," she said.

"I actually just came out of curiosity…to see you guys set up before I go to the show tonight," Lien said with a fake, nervous laugh.

"Oooh!" _He's an idiot, Ty Lee, you're going to be a circus performer,_ "Well tonight I'm going to be on the high wire, it's my debut," she smiled widely. _It's your dream; you can't let a stupid boy ruin this moment, _she told herself, and promised that she would never let a boy hurt her again.


	17. Over

**Over**

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* * *

**

"You're going to have to eat sometime," Mai finally gave up on dragging her friend to the food line and dropped Ty Lee's wrist.

"No, I'm not," the girl pouted, crossing her arms.

"Remember when Zuko left?" Mai asked.

"Of course?" There was no way Ty Lee could forget it. As soon as Azula told her what happened, Ty Lee rushed over to Mai's house. She found Mai sitting on her bed, reading like everything was okay, but her eyes were swollen and red from crying.

"And I told you when I saw him again I was going to cut his throat?"

"Yeah?" Ty Lee was confused.

"Then do you remember that long, boring speech you gave me about forgiveness?" Ty Lee glanced away and Mai continued, mocking her friend's bright, happy voice and waving her hands around the way Ty Lee did whenever she spoke. "'Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it,' that's about, like, y'know, being kind to someone even though they've wronged you blahblahblah." She resumed her normal tone, "And I don't remember what you said after that."

Ty Lee nervously ran her hand over her braid, "I don't sound like that," Mai raised her eyebrows and Ty Lee sighed, "Alright, fine. But this is different…"

"Yes, it _is_ different, but the point is the same. You're still here aren't you?"

Ty Lee blinked slowly, but Nishi was the one who spoke, "Uh, Ty Lee? He's not even here. You can eat breakfast." She and Aiko had been pointedly ignoring Mai since they met her the night before, which was probably best, considering she was doing the same.

For the first time, Ty Lee actually looked over to the food table where she saw a man distributing soup, but it definitely wasn't SoupGuard. He was too tall and too wide, and judging by the grey beard, much older than Ty Lee figured her former-friend to be. That was enough for her; the young lady rushed past Mai and took her place in line, stomach still growling. Mai rolled her eyes and stepped up behind her, followed by Nishi.

"Wait, what happened to…uh…what's-his-name?" Aiko asked as she leaned around the other Kyoshi warrior. Unfortunately, she came face to face with Mai, as Ty Lee was facing the opposite direction, standing on her toes, eager for her meal.

"Why are you asking me?" Mai said, staring at her coldly.

"She wasn't," Nishi interjected. Her abrupt tone was accompanied by a glare.

Ty Lee noticed the (figurative) lightening shooting between her two, very different, friends and jumped in between. "On second thought, you should go first Mai, I'm not that hungry," her stomach chose that moment to grumble and she realized how stupid she sounded.

Mai rolled her eyes and took Ty Lee's place in line. "You know, you really shouldn't let her out without her leash," she grumbled.

"You know, I'm just about sick of you and your stupid little comments,'" Nishi retorted taking a step foward, but she was pulled back by Aiko, while Ty Lee turned Mai around to face the front of the line.

"Could you guys please not fight? Spirits…" Ty Lee whined. "We still have to figure out how to get off this island and since SoupGuard is missing, now's our chance." She knew that something was up, but she couldn't just stand by, idly waiting. The girl was exhausted and starved, having spent the entire night before pacing up and down her cell waiting for someone to come or something to happen. When the heavy, steel door was unlocked for breakfast, Ty Lee was still awake and anxiously fiddling with her braid.

"She's right," Aiko contributed, "Our cell block is still on laundry duty today so Ty Lee and I are still on folding, so we're still going to take the uniforms. What's your work detail?"

"Are you crazy?" Nishi whispered, glancing around to make sure no one was listening, "The fact that your job isn't different proves nothing; it's just a trap or something."

"What else do you suggest we do?" Mai asked. Ty Lee had spent the rest of the last night's yard time explaining the situation to her.

The girls paused in order for the man who was not SoupGuard to fill their bowls, and then resumed their conversation in their normal corner. "Well?" Mai droned, "What should we do instead? Just sit around and wait until my uncle has Ty Lee transferred?"

Panic shot up Ty Lee's spine, and from the small smirk on Mai's face, she knew that's what she had been going for in order to motivate the group into action. "Ty Lee you're not going to be transferred. The worst that will happen is you'll be put in solitary for a while…"Aiko patted Ty Lee's hand to comfort her, and then her eyes lit up with realization. "Wait, your uncle?" she asked, turning to Mai.

"Yes. The warden is my uncle, but that won't help us. He's too afraid of FireLord Ozai and Princess Azula to do anything," Mai explained, her voice dripped with spite.

Ty Lee drank her soup in several giant gulps and wiped her mouth on her sleeve before she spoke, "We need to get the helmets if we're going to go with the first plan."

"Yeah, but that might mean that we just jump some guards and steal them…and we shouldn't do that until we're sure you have the uniforms," Nishi's face was determined and the other girls, including Mai, nodded their agreement.

"Today certainly doesn't seem to be the best time for that," Ty Lee said distantly as she scanned the courtyard. "Is it just me or is there way more guards than normal?"

"Wow, I didn't realize…but you're right," Aiko replied in confusion. There seemed to be about twice as many men and women stationed at every post.

"That's weird," Nishi added.

"It _is_ weird… Anyway, once we get the uniforms how do we get out of the laundry room without anyone noticing? We can't just carry them," Ty Lee asked; there was a long silence.

"We're on mop detail today," Nishi said triumphantly.

"Ohh I hadn't realized. Thanks for that. Your powers of perception are truly awe inspiring," Mai said dryly.

Nishi bit her tongue and continued, "So around close to dinner time, when the sun is going down, we'll make sure to be somewhere outside the laundry room. You two put the uniforms in the mop buckets; we'll dump them first," she assured the group, "And we can get them into one of our cells by the time we all get rounded up for dinner."

"Huh," Mai said, surprised, "That's actually a good idea." The Kyoshi smirked.

"No, Nishi! That's a_ great_ idea!" Ty Lee exclaimed.

"It's a plan then," Aiko said with a nod.

* * *

The girls worked quietly as they anxiously awaited the sunset. That was when they would attempt to conceal the uniforms past the extremely distracted, chatty guards in the hall, just long enough to drop them into the mop buckets. Ty Lee had just finished folding up a fourth guard uniform into as small a ball as possible, when the entire room seemed to change. Their shadows got longer and instead of a dull grey, the light from the setting sun was tinted a spooky orange. She looked up to meet Aiko's eyes, which were as confused and surprised as her own.

_Am I dreaming?_ Ty Lee asked herself, as the room was bathed in a surreal, bloody glow. The light cast strange shadows on Aiko's face, and it seemed to distort. Ty Lee felt like she was in a fun-house, and something just didn't feel _right_; her heart was pounding in her chest and her brain felt like it would explode from the panic and anxiety that overtook her. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, but when she opened them the strange orange light had only intensified to a deep, menacing red; déjà vu washed over her, but the young woman couldn't place the feeling.

"What's happening?" Aiko's voice sounded close to panic as she stood on her tip-toes and peered through the small, barred window to look at the ominous bloody clouds.

Ty Lee peeked out the window over her friend's shoulder, and she suddenly realized what was happening. "Sozin's comet," she said softly. _But, that means the summer is already over,_ she thought. _How could so much time have passed so quickly? _"That's why the extra guards."

"What?" Aiko turned to stare at Ty Lee, panic still dancing behind her eyes.

"It's Sozin's comet…It's the same comet that FireLord Sozin drew power from 100 years ago to wipe out the Air Nomads and start the war. They must have beefed up security because of how much more powerful the fire bending prisoners will be." Ty Lee turned to see Aiko's horrified face.

"What do we do, do we change the plan? Do we go through with it?" She whispered urgently.

"No, we still do it," Ty Lee did her best to focus on the task at hand, instead of letting her mind wander to the outside world. Unfortunately, as the guards held the door open for her talking about one of the women's sisters, and she stealthily dropped the bundled uniforms into Mai's bucket, which was hidden in the alcove, Ty Lee's mind wandered all on its own. _There's no more time. The war's over._

She stood in the dinner line behind Mai and choked back a small whimper, leaving a dazed looking Aiko to wait for their fourth girl. "The comet?" Mai asked tonelessly, and Ty Lee knew she was wondering what must have happened to Zuko.

"Yes," Ty Lee whispered, "We're still here." She hoped that Mai would understand what she was trying to say without her having to explain it. If they were still in prison but the comet was there…it meant that Ozai and Azula were still in charge; Zuko would have had them released if it were up to him. _So, Zuko and the Avatar lost or they're going to,_ she thought. Ty Lee didn't consider herself a genius by any means, but even she could figure out that if the Avatar wanted to fight the FireLord he would do it before the comet came; surely, Ozai was planning something huge for the comet's power.

Nishi stepped up beside them much to the chagrin of the prisoners in line behind them, but at glares from a Kyoshi warrior and two other girls who had already proven what they could do to prisoners who crossed them, they were quickly silenced. Nishi was using one arm to support Aiko, who looked like she would collapse without the aid. "Oh Spirits. Are you okay?" Ty Lee asked placing a hand on her friend's back. Even Mai's emotionless façade looked perhaps a little sympathetic.

"Even if we escape, where are Nishi and I going to go?" She said quietly.

"What do you mean?" Ty Lee asked. She was still thinking about Zuko. They were never particularly close but he was still her friend. The girl was about about to go on stress overload, but took a few calming deep breaths for the sake of her friends; she knew all three of them were also near their breaking points.

"This comet. You said that it makes the fire benders stronger," Ty Lee mentally interjected the word 'unstoppable' as Aiko spoke but nodded slowly. "So by the time it's passed the Fire Nation will have won the war."

"Not necessarily," Ty Lee said, nervously glancing anywhere but the Earth Kingdom girls.

"Yes." It was Mai who spoke. She stood behind Ty Lee with her arms wrapped tightly around herself. The line had moved on, leaving the girls behind as they talked.

"Mai!" Ty Lee quietly admonished, but her friend ignored her.

"You remember that all day war meeting Zuko went to?" Ty Lee nodded, "Well he told me what it was about. Ozai's going to use the comet to burn down what's left of the Earth Kingdom. All their crops, towns, everything he can get to," Mai's voice was a dull monotone, and in the eerie scarlet light her face looked empty and haunted, but Ty Lee could see that she was anything but emotionless.

"That's…awful," Ty Lee whispered as Aiko let out a small sob and buried her face in Nishi's shoulder.

"Yeah. Guess whose idea it was," Mai droned.

"…Azula's?" It felt like someone punched Ty Lee in the heart. She knew that Azula had changed a lot over the years, but could she have really fallen so far?

"Mhm. Zuko was going to try to stop it, but I guess he didn't," Mai concluded abruptly, before turning around and striding over to get her dinner.

"How can she be so heartless?" Nishi asked, aghast, brushing her hand over Aiko's hair.

"She's not heartless," Ty Lee explained, rubbing the crying girl's shoulders and struggling to hold back her own tears, but failing miserably, "That's just how she deals with things, by bottling up her feelings. This whole thing means the guy she loves is probably dead."

"Oh," Nishi said shortly. Together, they half carried Aiko to the food line to get their dinner from the same man as that morning, and then sat down in their corner where Mai was already staring blankly into her soup.

"We're still going to go through with the plan," Mai told the other girls; it wasn't a question. "Tomorrow, once the comet is gone, we'll get the helmets." Ty Lee wiped her eyes and looked up to the menacing, fiery sky, wishing she could rein herself in as well as Mai.

* * *

**A/N:** First, this is NOT AU. Just so you know. Second, go back and read the Roll Call chapter...I may have actually done something creative here xD.

Please please let me know what you think, good or bad. Especially, if you think something doesn't fit right. I'm not too sure about the flow of this chapter with the last one...I swear it won't hurt my feelings if you tell me you think I did something wrong. o.o

Also, that quote about forgiveness is Mark Twain also. n.n


	18. The Right Thing

**A/N:** I mixed up my pattern of present/flashback/present. Instead, I gave you a POV change! Are you ready? Good cause I already wrote this whole dang chapter.

If you never reviewed any of the other chapters (or even if you did) I REALLY want to know what you think about this one. Like...so bad. O.O

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**The Right Thing**

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**

"How is my niece involved in this?" The warden asked, signaling one of the guards stationed outside his office to close the door.

"She's your niece?" Shan raised an eyebrow, fortunately it was covered by his helmet; he knew that it was usually a bad idea to question the warden, but this was just too much for him to stay quiet.

The warden gave an exaggerated sigh in order to show how stupid he considered his employee to be. "No, not her, the girl she came here with."

"The one who kicked that guy in the face?" Shan asked before he could stop himself and immediately winced at his own audacity.

The young man was mentally smacking himself for asking so many questions when the warden replied in a strange, somewhat pleasant way, "Yes, that was her." Unfortunately, that just made Shan even more uncomfortable. He wondered if the man was planning on doing something horrible, and if he should just run now while he had the chance; but then the warden's voice returned to his regular, condescending tone and Shan let himself relax somewhat, "As I've already asked you once before: How is she involved in this?"

"Uh, well I'm not sure that she is, Sir," he shrugged. The warden's niece had been in solitary for so long, he really wasn't sure if she was at all involved with the Bouncy Girl's plan. _Ty Lee's plan,_ he corrected himself; he had just found out her name after asking the severe lady in charge of records so that he could tell the warden about what he'd discovered.

When the permanently scowling woman revealed the girl's name he almost smiled; he had spent more time than he liked to admit making guesses about what it would be, but nothing ever seemed to fit quite right. He knew that if he asked she would probably have told him but he had always felt too awkward or nervous; he wasn't supposed to talk to prisoners, and he was especially never to make friends with them. An instant after the near-smile his heart had plummeted, remembering the look on her face when she hit him, and it was the same feeling he had now.

_I'm doing the right thing,_ Shan thought, trying to push down the guilty feeling and staring at the warden's crown-like headpiece instead of in the man's eyes. The warden was leaning back in his chair, an unpleasant and thoughtful expression on his cruel face. "What _exactly_ happened? Tell me again," he commanded.

The scene replayed itself over again in his mind, and again he felt the sinking realization that he had no choice but to tell the warden about Ty Lee's plan. _If someone else found out that I knew about it…I would be arrested too; or at the very least lose my job,_ he thought. The whole time he spent serving dinner, after Ty Lee yelled at him, he'd flip-flopped between telling, or staying quiet. If he told the warden, what would happen to Ty Lee? If he didn't, what would happen to him? He didn't know what the girl had been arrested for, but somehow he couldn't imagine that the bright, bubbly woman was a cold-blooded killer, or anything of that nature. The only time that he questioned that assumption was when she'd punched another prisoner who laughed at her, flooring the man instantly. What if, instead of a political prisoner or a petty-thief, she really _had_ done something horrible?

That thought had been the deal breaker in terms of his hesitance to tell the warden. _She's in prison for a reason,_ he convinced himself, _she may seem sweet, kind, special, bea—, _he mentally kicked himself again,_ but that doesn't mean it's not an act... and I can't afford to fail at this job too._ It was always easier to believe she'd done something awful when she wasn't there in person. So now, Shan took a deep breath and ran back through the story for the warden's benefit. "That girl, uhm," he checked the piece of parchment the unpleasant records woman gave him, "Prisoner 3487. She and her two friends, the Earth Kingdom girls…I have their numbers too," he held up the parchment for emphasis, "They're going to try and escape."

It took Shan a moment to realize that the warden was staring at him with a bored an expectant look on his face. "Uh…" he said, glancing down at the paper, like it would reveal the secret explaining where the intimidating man's one weak spot was. It didn't. He swallowed hard and gave a little shrug to indicate he was done.

His boss gave another overdramatic sigh. "And?" he said, "_How_ exactly will they accomplish this amazing escape plan?"

_Duh, of course he would want to know that…idiot,_ Shan mentally chided himself. Now he remembered the reason that he tried to speak as little as possible; why was it always so easy for other people to embarrass him? He cleared his throat, "They're going to take some of the guard uniforms next time they're on laundry detail and ride out on the gondola when the guards on that week's shift leave."

"Hm," the warden said simply after several seconds pause. "Well, Mai has been back with the regular population for several hours now…and I'm sure that her friend has told her about the plan." Shan was still trying to decide whether or not he should nod when the warden spoke again, "She's already caused trouble once…I have _very_ specific instructions from Princess Azula if there are any more, uh, disturbances from my niece _or_ her friend." The warden didn't specify what kind of instructions, but from the man's tone, Shan could only guess.

He felt uncomfortable again and, unsure what to say or do, he just waited. _Why is the princess herself involved in this?_ he wondered, but restrained from asking this time. He suddenly felt guilty again, _was_ Ty Lee just a political prisoner? Did she merely speak out against something someone higher up than her had decided upon? Disrespect someone? He figured he would never know now.

"Do you know what that means?" The warden asked, exaggeratingly slow. Shan felt his face heat up, but didn't respond. "Well then I'll explain it to you. I was raised to believe that family was to be placed above all else. While my niece may not have been directly involved in the plotting of this escape, she is inarguably involved now." He stared at Shan like he was waiting for a response, so the young man nodded slightly; he was raised under the same ideals, it just felt strange to imagine the unwavering warden as a family man.

The warden nodded solemnly, "Then you understand."

"Uhm, understand what, Sir?" He knew that he was probably about to be on the wrong side of another sarcastic comment about his intelligence, but he really didn't know what the man was talking about this time.

"As you know, Sozin's comet is nearly upon us," the warden continued as if Shan hadn't spoken. "And soon, I fear, Princess Azula won't be much of a factor anymore…that is, if the war goes the way I think it will." Shan's eyes widened and he understood why the warden had the men close the door. _Am I really in the middle of a treasonous discussion right now?_ He thought, panicky. If someone overheard this then he _would_ be sent to jail, possibly executed; he came to talk to the warden because he _didn't_ want to spend the rest of his life in prison, or any of it for that matter.

"Sir…are you sure that—"

"So, I'm sure you understand why I can't have my sister's daughter, uhm, detained…at least not until the fate of our Nation is truly decided."

Shan took a nervous breath and nodded, wondering if this was some kind of a trap to get him to say something against the princess or the FireLord. He didn't really know enough about the war to have a position on it; he had tried to join the army once, but was unable to pass basic training, and that was about as far as his knowledge on the subject went. The war had lasted for a century and was really more of a background to his life than anything he associated with himself.

"You're excused," the warden said, turning back to a scroll on his desk.

"What?" Shan asked, aghast. That was it; he had betrayed Ty Lee for that? _Not betrayed, I did the right thing._ Again, he saw himself pushing the cart away while she cried and clutched her hair; that was a strange tick of her's that he had noticed fairly quickly. How could doing the right thing have felt so wrong? "You're not going even to _do_ anything?" His tone came out sounding far more disrespectful than he had anticipated.

"Guards?" The warden called, and one of the men opened the door.

"Yes, Sir?"

The warden turned back to Shan, "Well, now that you mention it; I suppose I really can't have you spreading awful conspiracy theories amongst the other guards."

"What?" Shan felt his defenses shoot up.

The warden ignored him, instead turning to the other guard. "I think that Mr…uhm?" He glanced at Shan.

"Kuo," he replied automatically, eyes wide.

"I think Mr. Kuo here needs some time off to really question whether or not he wants to continue telling libelous stories."

"What? NO," he shouted as one guard grabbed each of his arms. Shan may not have been the sharpest sword in the armory but he knew that 'time off' was not really time off. _Am I really being punished for doing exactly what I'm supposed to?_ He thought as the other guards pulled him out of the warden's office. As the men who used to be his colleagues led him away, he didn't fight nearly as much as he figured he should: what was the point anyway? It was an island surrounded by boiling water. Where would he go even if he got them to release him, back to his post in the kitchen?

They shoved him down on the metal bench and the small, steel windows around him felt more like a prison than a cell ever would. _First Mom's stand, then the army and now this, _his brain subconsciously interjected the word, 'her' but he didn't let the thought complete itself_, if this was what was going to happen, anyway, maybe I should have just told Ty Lee where they keep the helmets. When will I ever stop losing?_ He asked himself.

* * *

**A/N:**  
(Shameless Self-Promoting...BEGIN)

So, I'm assuming many of you people reading this are Ty Lee fans...am I right? If that's the case you should go to my profile and join my community where YoungFool and I (mostly YoungFool so far...I don't mind admiting it xD) have amassed a wunderbar collection of Ty Lee stories for your reading enjoyment! Go! Subscribe! I compel you!

(Shameless Self-Promoting...END)


	19. The Helmets

**A/N:** WOAH! Are you ready for a long chapter? Cause this is probably the most words I've ever written xD. As The Codemeister pointed out...we DO all know how the series ends, but that doesn't mean that there isn't going to be a dramatic, action packed close to this story! YEESH. (No this isn't the end). Knowing what's going to happen when the characters don't, or knowing a secret that the characters don't know is a form of dramatic irony people!

*Distributes literary devices as door prizes for this chapter.*

Enjoy! (Or don't, but if you don't I'd love it if you told me why n.n)

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**The Helmets**

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* * *

**

"He's still not back yet?" Ty Lee asked, talking to herself as much as to her friends.

"Don't sound so worried, Ty Lee. That's a good thing, remember?" Nishi reminded her.

"Yeah," Aiko contributed, "This means we actually have a chance to get the helmets."

"Shut up," Mai ordered as another group of prisoners stepped up behind them. Ty Lee didn't say anything, but not because of her friend's command. Despite her hurt feelings and anger, she was curious what happened to SoupGuard.

As the new bearded man gave Ty Lee a scoop of dinner, she heard Nishi whisper behind her, "I still think this whole thing is a trap."

"You're welcome to stay behind," Mai whispered back, but both girls silenced themselves when they reached the front of the line. Ty Lee stood aside, waiting. Several nearby prisoners, not just the girls, exchanged curious glances when the man serving their soup laughed. The sound was hearty and deep, much the way Ty Lee remembered Azula's Uncle Iroh's laugh.

Mai refused to react to the laughter, walking past the other girls to their usual area without even a glance to the jovial SoupGuard Mark II. "Hmm," he squinted at the prison linens of the boy standing in front of him, "You look familiar, Prisoner. Have we met before, young man?" He asked in an exaggerated tone.

Ty Lee twisted around to see the exchange; she could still hear the Kyoshis muttering behind her. "…Well Sunshine and I can try to steal them…but then our timing has to be perfect so we can get to the gondola before anyone notices," Nishi whispered.

"We don't even know _when_ the gondola leaves," Aiko's whisper was annoyed, "Ty Lee? Did SoupGuard ever mention anything to give us a hint what time the gondola left?"

Ty Lee didn't answer, and she wasn't the only prisoner watching the boy and the new guard. The young man had an annoyed, frustrated look on his face, like he wanted nothing more than to punch the old man in the jaw. Instead he averted his eyes and, quietly enough that Ty Lee could barely hear from her position, yet forceful enough that the man got the idea, the boy spoke, "Come on, I just want to get my breakfast, I didn't get to eat yesterday."

"Ty Lee?" Aiko poked her arm.

Ty Lee waved the girl off, "Look at this," she directed Aiko's attention away from their nefarious plotting and towards the discussion that was holding up the food line.

"Haha, I'm just joking with you," the man said, smiling as he ladled a scoop of gruel into the boy's outstretched bowl, "Have you ever actually eaten this stuff?"

"No."

"HAHA. You're sure in for a treat," the man grinned somewhat maliciously as the boy stepped out of line amidst jeers and shouts from the prisoners waiting behind him.

"I've seen that guy before," Aiko said simply.

Ty Lee and Nishi both turned to look at their friend. "Where have you seen him?" Nishi asked, the look on her face clearly demonstrating how much she believed Aiko.

"I dunno…something about how he walks." Nishi and Ty Lee exchanged amused glances.

Ty Lee giggled. She knew the other girls, as well as her, were in a heightened state of anxiety and nerves. _What they need is a good laugh,_ she thought, recalling how many times she had alleviated Azula's rage or Mai's boredom by making jokes. "Oooh, the way he walks, huh?" Ty Lee asked, her voice dripping with honey, "Somebody's got a cru-u-ush," she said in a sing-song voice as Mai rejoined their group, looking utterly annoyed at their dawdling. Ty Lee glanced over to the boy in question; as she got a better look at him, she realized that although he was skinny he actually looked to be older than her, perhaps his late teens.

"What are you talking about." Mai interjected, and with her dull, emotionless monotone, the question sounded more like a statement.

_Average height, traditional hair style, and kinda lanky…all in all…meh,_ Ty Lee thought. He wasn't the kind of guy she would usually tease a friend about in order to embarrass them, but she took what she could get. As the boy took a sip of his soup, immediately followed by a gag she glanced back to Aiko's reddening face and Nishi's small smirk. "Aiko has a crush," the acrobat told her best friend cheerfully as she motioned to the young man with her thumb. "He's not the type of guy I'd go for, myself," she went on, "I usually prefer them a little more muscley." Ty Lee grinned.

The corner of Mai's mouth was twitched up into a miniscule smirk as she took a sip of her dinner and Aiko was bright red now, "Come on, you know that's not what I meant. I was talking about his posture and stuff…"

"Ooh, 'his posture,' huh? I guess we all have different things we look for in a boy," Ty Lee was grinning ear to ear and she didn't notice the smile slip off Mai's face to be replaced by a hollow, deadpan mask.

"You want me to go talk to him for you?" Nishi asked sweetly, getting in on the game. Aiko was the only one who saw the horrified expression cross the boy's face when he heard their giggling, as well as him glancing around like a trapped elephant-rat before he hurried away in the opposite direction. She didn't say anything for fear of more teasing.

"Come on, guys!" She whined, her face still beet red, "We have more important things to worry about here."

"I know, Aiko, it's just good to have a laugh once in a—"

"Yeah. We need to get those helmets soon or we're all dead once SoupGuard comes back," Mai's voice sounded more numb than usual, and Ty Lee examined her expression. Mai's face was plastered with her most empty, most vacant mask, which not a sliver of emotion or feeling could creep past. It was one that the young acrobat had only seen a handful of times and it could only mean one thing: Mai was really and truly hurt. _Dangit, Ty Lee, how could you talk about boys around Mai with how worried she is about Zuko…stupid, stupid, stupid,_ Ty Lee scolded herself, giving Mai a sympathetic look that, she hoped, conveyed how sorry she felt. Her friend's face didn't change, but with a wave of her hand she led the group back to their normal, secluded area so they could have their discussion in semi-private.

"I think it's probably right before dinner that they switch," Nishi said thoughtfully after the girls sat down in their usual patch of dirt.

"How do you know that?" Ty Lee asked with a furrowed brow.

"It's just a guess…that's when we finish our work detail, and you remember those two annoying girls that are usually stationed over by the laundry area?" They all nodded, "Well the other day, like a week ago maybe they left just as we were finishing up and we didn't see them again for a few days."

"That means they were done watching you," Mai rolled her eyes.

"Well I don't hear you coming up with any bright ideas, Sunshine."

Mai shifted her sleeve just enough to show the glint of one of her homemade shurikens which she was saving for their escape attempt. "Are you very fond of your fingers?" she asked. Nishi's eyes widened. She was unable to tell if the girl across from her was serious or not; Ty Lee seemed to be the only one who could read her. "Okay, well in that case I suggest you don't ever call me Sunshine again."

Ty Lee sighed heavily. She was starting to wonder if there was really anything she could to in order to make her first ever friend and her new friends get along. She was reasonably sure that Mai would not be cutting anyone's fingers off, but she didn't want to take any chances, "She's kidding," Ty Lee reassured the Kyoshi.

"Noted…"

Nishi's reply came nearly simultaneously as a mumble from Mai, "I wasn't kidding…"

"I think Nishi's idea sounds as good as anything, so let's go with right before dinner," Ty Lee interrupted.

Aiko nodded, "Ty Lee and I can beat up a couple of guards and take their helmets, we can hide them in a cell since everyone will be at dinner and then we can change and go to the deck, you guys can do the same thing and we can meet at the gondola."

"What if the gondola isn't there?" It was Nishi who spoke.

"Then we, uhm, 'go out with a bang' just like you said," the acrobat forced herself to smile.

* * *

"It's gotta be almost time, right?" Aiko asked with a jumpy timber to her voice. Ty Lee nodded in the affirmative. Her own heart was pounding and adrenaline pumped through her veins as she and Aiko slowly made their way around a corner that was, presumably, off the radar of the men who were supervising their work. Ty Lee quickly scanned for guards and determined the hall to be clear.

"Ok, now what?" Aiko said, peeking around the corner to see if anyone had noticed them walk out of the regular work area.

"I don't know," Ty Lee admitted. Every muscle in her body wanted to move, thanks to her adrenaline rush, but she didn't know what to do about that. "I guess we wait for some guards to come by?"

"GAH this is so STUPID, this is never going to work," Aiko whispered urgently. "Why didn't we think this through more?"

"You _know_ why. There's no more time, calm down," Ty Lee poked her friend in the belly, just above her naval. The girl had never tried it before, but she knew from her studies that certain pressure points can open chi paths wider in order to heal, and she hoped that opening the Kyoshi's heart line would calm her down.

It seemed to work as the girl took a deep breath, most of her tension alleviated, "Thanks, I needed that."

"_Yeah_, you did…" Ty Lee smiled weakly.

"Okay so somehow we have to get two guards to—"

"No you don't," there came a sullen voice from behind them. Sitting against the wall in an area where he would be hidden from the guards was the same boy from that morning. Aiko coughed awkwardly and glanced at Ty Lee who couldn't help but smirk, but she knew it was no time for teasing. His mop lay forgotten beside him and he seemed to have been toying with the frayed hem of his sleeve when the girls hurried over.

Ty Lee couldn't believe they didn't check the area better, and from the wide eyed look on Aiko's face, the girl figured she felt the same. "What are you talking about?" She did her best to sound innocent.

He just rolled his eyes and went back to looking dejected, "If you can get upstairs without anyone noticing, over in the Western wing where the guards' quarters are, there's a supply room where they keep extra uniforms and helmets." His voice was almost as monotonic as Mai's, but the vibe that Ty Lee was picking up from him hinted at a heavy heart. Ty Lee would call the feeling brownish blue; despite having trouble imagining such a mixture she had long ago discovered that the only way she could effectively describe emotions was using colors.

"How are we going to get into the West wing, just _walk_?" Ty Lee asked, annoyed. The girl had never been in that area of the prison, but she assumed that it was not exactly easy to infiltrate.

Aiko shushed her and eyed the boy suspiciously before turning her back to him and whispering to her friend, "How would he even know about that?" He stood up and crossed his arms, waiting for the girls.

"Yeah, how would you know about that?" Ty Lee asked forcefully. Aiko smacked her forehead and turned back around to the boy, a severe, Kyoshi-like expression on her face.

He stared at them, blinked, and threw up his hands in order to drop them, frustrated. "Really?" he asked. The girls glanced at each other, "_REALLY?_" Ty lee raised her eyebrows; there was no need for him to get so upset, but some of the gears were starting to turn in the back of Ty Lee's head. "So, you don't even recognize me? I've been avoiding you for no reason?" He groaned, bringing his hands to his face and clutching at his head like he was trying to banish his own thoughts. Aiko's eyebrows were up near her hairline and Ty Lee figured she could feel the heaviness as well.

That small, logical part of Ty Lee's brain that wasn't filled up with nifty high wire tricks or cute boys whirred to life and the pieces finally clicked together. "SoupGuard!" she exclaimed, extending her arms and preparing to go in for a hug.

She stopped in her tracks when, instead of a heartfelt hug or a happy greeting, his only response was: "Huh?"

Quickly she retracted her hug offering, "…Not SoupGuard?" she asked, glancing to Aiko for support. _I was pretty sure that it was him…_she thought glancing at the boy in front of her, _same pale skin, same slouch, same jaw line, same height, and same dark brown eyes - that's gotta be SoupGuard._ She frowned.

"I guess the awful soup really is the only thing I ever guarded, huh?" his voice was defeated.

"HA!" Aiko interrupted, "I _told_ you I knew him from somewhere!"

"You did, didn't you?" Ty Lee appeared thoughtful. She nodded to her Earth Kingdom friend before her face cracked into a huge smile; she spread her arms to reaffirm her hug-offer but then she remembered how very angry she was with her former friend. "I forgot I'm mad at you," she said, frowning and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yeah…I'm really sorry about that, that's kind of why I'm here," he said softly. It sounded sincere but he refused to meet her eyes. He shifted uncomfortably. Ty Lee tried to get back the strange vibration of emotion so she could put a color to it and see why he was uncomfortable, but sometimes, like this one, it didn't really work.

Ty Lee's smile burst out and a small one even graced Aiko's lips. "I knew you wouldn't tell!" she squealed (as well as she could squeal through a whisper) and threw her arms around his neck in a hug. "I told you he wouldn't tell," she repeated to Aiko in a slightly more calm tone.

He made a hesitant sound and lightly tried to release Ty Lee's vice grip of a hug. Hurt stabbed through her chest; not even Azula had ever rejected her hugs. She knew from the close proximity that he could probably feel the Blood-Red Blue radiating off of her, but she couldn't stop it. "What?" she asked, frowning.

"That's the thing…" he shifted again and Ty Lee took a step back, releasing him.

"You _did_ tell!" Aiko spoke for her, stepping up with a menacing glare. SoupGuard took a step backwards but his retreat was halted by the wall he had been standing by.

"I _had_ to! You don't understand, I would have lost everything if I lost this job," his eyes were pleading and Ty Lee felt her heart soften. _I guess he _was_ just doing his job…_ the rational part of her mind said while the emotional part tried to make her chi-block the life out of him.

"Oh yeah?" Aiko didn't seem quite as sympathetic, "And this is you _not_ losing your job?"

Aiko must have hit a nerve; he sighed heavily and Ty Lee felt another wave of color. "I did everything I was supposed to and the warden had me locked up."

"Why would you get arrested for reporting about an escape plan?" Aiko said, clearly unbelieving. Her normally kind face was twisted into a glare that could easily match Nishi's if not Mai's. "You're lying about something," she accused.

Ty Lee stayed silent, running her braid through her hands thoughtfully as the other two prisoners talked. "I'm not! That's what happened," SoupGuard said, exasperated, he threw up his hands in frustration. "The warden didn't explain it. He said something about Princess Azula and something else about your friend being his niece and then something about the princess not being around for much longer," His eyes, which Ty Lee had only ever seen as kind or sad, were lit up with frustration and anger.

"What else did he say?" Aiko asked suspiciously, giving the young man a poke in the ribs.

"I don't really know," he fumbled, glancing away like he was remembering. _Or inventing,_ Ty Lee thought.

"How can you _not_ know, you were there weren't you?" the young warrior's voice was dark as she interrogated the former-guard and even Ty Lee found herself a little intimidated.

"Yeah, I was there," he shot back in an agitated whisper, seeming to gain confidence, "I was a little preoccupied with the fact that if anyone overheard us talking about the princess like that I would be executed too. I was already feeling horrible and guilty and then he hangs treason over my head?" he asked the Kyoshi, nearly hysterical, "I'm sooo sorry that I can't remember his exact words since they didn't make any sense anyway!"

Aiko sighed slightly, redirecting her eyes to Ty Lee, "What do you think we should do?"

"I don't know," she glanced around anxiously. There were no windows, so she had no idea what time it was, but she figured that sunset was upon them. She frowned heavily, then her eyes shot back to life, she glanced back up to meet the former SoupGuard's anxious stare, "They _do_ switch shifts when we're coming back from dinner, right? That's when we'd go meet the gondola?"

His eyes widened in surprise, "Yeah, how did you know that?"

"Lucky guess," the girl replied. "We don't have much time," she told the Kyoshi beside her.

"Then we have to get the helmets and meet Nishi and Mai…but we can't trust _him_, so we'll have to go with the original plan and steal them," her stare bored holes in SoupGuard's forehead.

Ty Lee still didn't entirely understand the situation. She could tell that _something_ just wasn't right; there was an annoying little itch in the back of her brain, picking at the situation and trying to show Ty Lee which pieces didn't fit, but the young woman had no idea what it meant. However, she did know one thing. "You're right, Aiko," her determined face softened into sympathy when she looked at the eyes of the first friend she made in prison. "Sorry, SoupGuard," she said watching his dark eyes widen in confusion, before she punched him in the upper shoulder, over where his heart would sit, followed by his abdomen, just below his ribs and ending with a light knuckle poke to his temple.

The young man's eyes rolled up in his head and he slumped down the wall, unconscious. "Wow, why didn't you teach _me_ how to do that?" Aiko asked as the girls slid his body over the steel floor and into one of the empty cells beside them.

"It's kinda dangerous," Ty Lee explained.

"He's gonna be okay, right?" Aiko's normal, sweet, voice was back and the hard expression she had worn while talking to the guard-turned-prisoner had disappeared. _She really _is_ almost as good as Mai at controlling her expressions,_ Ty Lee thought.

"Yep, he'll wake up in a few hours when we're safely off the island," Ty Lee smiled sadly at her unconscious friend, and mentally apologized for leaving him. The little itch in the back of her head tried to yell something, but Ty Lee couldn't make out what it meant.

"Let's get some helmets," Aiko said with a smile that almost looked excited, her anxiety and terror of several minutes ago seemingly forgotten.

"I'm glad to see you're excited!" Ty Lee replied with a smile of her own.

"Of course I am, we're about to get off this island! ...Plus, I've been training for years in the art of stealth warfare and I haven't had much of a chance to use it," she conceded as she peered through the small slit in the metal door. Ty Lee started to reply with a small smile, but was quickly shushed. "Shh, do you hear that?" The acrobat listened intently and after a moment she could hear steadily increasing footsteps accompanied by the sound of men's voices. "There's two or three guards coming," Aiko whispered, and then added, "I think there's three."

"I think we can take three," Ty Lee whispered with a smile. Despite herself, she was getting excited too. Soon, they would be free of the Boiling Rock and she could find out how to fix her selfish life.

The men were very close now, nearly to the outside of the door. The footsteps stopped, and Ty Lee could hear one man asking about the mop that SoupGuard had abandoned. Aiko mouthed the word _wait….._Then held up her hand to still Ty Lee.

"Damn prisoners never put their supplies away," one of the men complained.

"Let someone else get it, that's not our job," another replied as a third one voiced his ascent.

As soon as they stepped around the corner, Aiko signaled Ty Lee to follow her and opened the creaking metal door just enough for two petite women to slip through.

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**A/N:** Okay, since "Reader" is my random anonymous reviewer I'd like to thank them for their very short yet heart warming review. xD All of the rest of y'all I can just shoot a PM to to thank you.

Like I said, this is the most I've written and I'd really like to know if you liked it or didn't like it, what you thought worked or didn't work. Even if you think it sucks, tell me that...preferably along with WHY it sucks so I can fix said suckiness.

Thanks for reading! n.n


	20. Azula

**A/N: **This chapter is a little shorter than the others, but I thought it was an important one and the next chapter is a whopper! I already have it written, I just need to let it stew and read it later on to be sure I don't want to change anything. Sorry for the cliffhanger. n.n;

I briefly touched on this part earlier in the story, but it needed its own chapter. As always, let me know what you think!

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**Azula**

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Ty Lee was standing behind Azula as the princess stepped into the holding cell. She almost giggled when the warden's face instantly changed from rage to pure fear at the sight of Azula. She restrained herself, but by the cruel smile on Azula's face the acrobat guessed that her friend was also trying not to laugh.

Ty Lee looked on, amused as the princess told the warden she was a people person, and nearly laughed again, but knew that that time it would only invoke the princess' wrath.

"How did you know that guy wasn't the guard who helped with the escape attempt?" Ty Lee asked her friend as they were led back out of the holding cell to meet Mai.

"Well if ZuZu's here than I'm sure the imposter guard is one of the Avatar's friends. Probably that Water Tribe peasant boy," Azula drawled, examining at her perfectly manicured nails.

Ty Lee's heart sped up as she visualized the boy in question; she could almost see the dark blue eyes, tan skin and the shaved sides of his head. _He _is_ a little skinny, but blue eyes trump skinny any day,_ she thought with an ear to ear grin, "Great!" she said to her then-friend. Even if she had to fight him, it was always fun to see the current object of her affection.

"Come on, Ty Lee," Azula said, immediately recognizing the reason for her friend's excitement. "Even _you_ can do better than a pathetic Water Tribe peasant."

Ty Lee grinned wider, remembering her last fight with the Water Tribe boy and how it had almost been like a dance. But that was before she realized that Azula's comment was actually an insult; her smile fell and her face started to turn red. _Why does she have to do that?_ Ty Lee asked herself. It seemed like every time she let herself fall back into the trap of enjoying herself around Azula, the princess found a way to remind her who was in charge.

"He's just cute that's all," Ty Lee said, trying to keep her voice sweet and cheerful.

"Hm, I guess you _are_ probably running out of Fire Nation boys. Once you finish with the Water Tribe will you move on to the Earth Kingdom?" Azula's smile was malicious and Ty Lee refused to reply; she knew from her experience on Ember Island exactly why Azula was so mean to her about boys. Contrary to what the princess believed, and although she was a big flirt and very good at making guys do what she wanted, Ty Lee had never had a serious boyfriend.

She also knew that Azula had never kissed a boy before Chan at his party. _She's jealous,_ the acrobat told herself, _She's mean to you because the boys went after you instead of her and it hurt her feelings_, and however hard that was to believe, Ty Lee replayed Azula's voice in her memory, telling her that very thing until the hurt lessened.

Unlike many of the times before, Azula did not rush to apologize for hurting the acrobat's feelings. In fact, she didn't apologize at all, just let out a long, annoyed sigh.

Ty Lee was counting the seconds until they would meet back up with Mai. Her friendship with Azula had crumbled and she could now hardly stand to be around the princess. Something had changed, there was a piece missing from Azula that, even when she was mean, had kept her human; Ty Lee was now more Azula's servant than her friend.

The young woman was jerked out of her painful reverie when a yell echoed through the metal hull of the prison. "RIOT!" Someone was yelling, and the guards immediately rushed towards the sound of the alarm, leaving Ty Lee with the fire princess.

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Ty Lee was standing on the gondola beside Azula looking on as the second gondola, opposite her, slowly ascended. The men below were sawing away and Ty Lee's heart felt like someone was punching it. _Would Azula really let them die?_ the acrobat wondered, examining the pained, terrified faces of the people on board the other gondola with a troubled frown marring her own features. Her brain told her that she had to do something, she had to save them, she couldn't just stand by and let a gondola full of innocent (sorta) people die; but her muscles wouldn't move, she was rooted to the spot.

She glanced to the side to see the guards sawing the cord, and then back to the escapee prisoners. _Could Azula really kill her brother?_ The acrobat was never close to the fallen prince, but they had grown up together and a certain level of friendship had developed after years of close proximity. He and Azula always had a rocky relationship, and Azula had changed a lot the past several years, but there's no way she would let her own brother die, _Right?_ Ty Lee asked.

Zuko was clutching the arm of Ty Lee's crush after the boy had nearly plummeted to his death. _What if he'd died?_ Ty Lee didn't really know him, whether or not he was a nice guy or a bad guy, and barbaric peasant or no barbaric peasant she didn't know what she would do if someone died because of her; even the Earth Kingdom girl she had fought. Ty Lee had done so because she had to, she didn't know the girl and the fight wasn't personal; even if she was their enemy in the war, and if her country was backward and uncivilized, she was still human.

Ty Lee was jerked out of her pained thoughts when a furious Azula spoke beside her, "What does she think she's doing?" The young woman followed the princess' gaze to see Mai, pulling the lever to restart the gondola so the traitors and enemies could escape.

Ty Lee, on autopilot, shrugged, making an unsure noise while inside she was mentally screaming, _NO,_ at the same time that she silently applauded Mai for taking action when she couldn't make herself. Ty Lee looked on, powerless as Mai did her best to fight off the guards. The girl was mostly successful, yet was eventually overpowered; she was only one girl after all.

The gondola landed and Ty Lee jumped down beside Azula, her stomach buzzing with steel butterflies and feeling like she would throw up as the guards pull Mai up to meet Azula.

"Leave us alone," Azula commanded the guards, who bowed obediently and left the three girls alone on the platform. "I would never have expected this from you," Azula said, and Ty Lee picked up a vague, Blue radiating off of Azula. _Is she…hurt?_ the acrobat asked herself, clutching her hands together and trying to squeeze out her anxiety and terror. She closed her eyes, trying to make her horrible dream disappear, but when she opened them nothing had changed. Ty Lee's eyes welled up with poorly restrained tears.

Mai looked up to meet the princess' eyes. Her expression was determined and unwavering. "The thing I don't understand is why. Why would you do it? You know the consequences!" Ty Lee definitely felt the Blue and she clasped her hands tighter. Something bad was coming, she could feel it.

When Mai spoke her voice was clear and void of fear, "I guess you just don't know people as well as you think you do. You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you."

The princess' face twisted into fury and all of the Blue was overwhelmed by pure, hot, empty Black. "No, _you_ miscalculated," Azula practically yelled. In all the time that she'd known her, Ty Lee had rarely seen the princess truly lose her composure, "You should have feared me more!"

It happened in slow motion, Azula stepped into her stance, and Mai drew a stiletto. Her two best friends were facing off before her and Ty Lee's heart felt like it would beat out of her chest. Azula drew her arm back to strike and Ty Lee acted before she thought. She knew one thing: Azula would kill Mai. So, Ty Lee's body acted on its own and punched Azula in the arm, blocking her fire bending.

The princess gasped, eyes wide in shock. It took a moment. Azula's face passed between several emotions, but Ty Lee couldn't feel any colors. An instant before the pure, unburdened rage appeared, Ty Lee could swear she saw hot pain, but it was quickly hidden.

Ty Lee stood in a daze, fists still raised as she watched the princess fall, but she snapped back to life before Mai did. Her best friend was still standing, wide eyed and open mouthed when Ty Lee grabbed her arm, "Come on! Let's get out of here!" She tugged on Mai's arm but by the time the girl regained the power over her legs and took a step forward, they were surrounded by guards.

"What should we do with them, Princess?" asked one of the guards holding them.

"Put them somewhere I'll never have to see them again, and let them rot," Azula spat as the guards lifted her. The princess' voice was shaking with rage, _or pain,_ Ty Lee thought, and the kind young woman felt guilt settle in the pit of her stomach. She'd betrayed Azula, but she had no choice.

The sympathy for Azula was short lived however, as that very night Ty Lee was left to cry herself to sleep in the cell that would be her home for the long weeks ahead.


	21. Escape

**A/N:** Okay! I hope you all like this chapter! Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this story. *gets all teary eyed*

Again, no this isn't the end, I'm just feeling mushy xD. Like always, let me know what you think! If you don't want to do a public review you could always shoot me a PM or an e-mail; it's in my profile and it's specific to this account so it won't be bothering me. n.n

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**Escape**

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"I think we can take three," Ty Lee whispered with a smile. Despite herself, she was getting excited too. Soon, they would be free of the Boiling Rock and she could find out how to fix her selfish life.

The men were very close now, nearly to the outside of the door. The footsteps stopped, and Ty Lee could hear one man asking about the mop that SoupGuard had abandoned. Aiko mouthed the word wait…Then held up her hand to still Ty Lee.

"Damn prisoners never put their supplies away," one of the men complained.

"Let someone else get it, that's not our job," another replied as a third one voiced his ascent.

As soon as they stepped around the corner, Aiko signaled Ty Lee to follow her and opened the creaking metal door just enough for two petite women to slip through.

Together, the girls tiptoed up to the next corner and Aiko held up her hand, signally Ty Lee to stop. The men were standing at an intersection at the end of the hall, saying goodbye to one of their number before they went their separate ways. "Okay," Aiko whispered, her eyes lit up with excitement. Her years of training as a warrior seemed to be showing through at last and Ty Lee was only too happy to let her take the lead on their mission, "If we just head on attack them there's no way that we can take all three before they make enough noise to alert someone, so we're going to need a distraction." She frowned heavily and the men laughed about something, "You're going to limp over there like you're hurt and while they're looking at you it gives me a window rush up there chi block one if you can get the other two."

Ty Lee nodded obediently, but one thing was bothering her, "Limp over there?" she asked, "Won't they be able to see through that right away?"

"Well it _is_ kind of overused, but we're running out of time here," Aiko shrugged, a small frown on her lips.

But then, as Ty Lee flipped her braid over her shoulder to keep it out of the way of her hands, she was struck with a brilliant idea, "I have a better way to keep them distracted." She grinned wickedly as she quickly pulled her hair out of the braid and let it fall around her shoulders in a way that she knew from experience made her look young, innocent and adorable.

She took a few deep breaths and mixed her face up into a pitiful and scared expression. After taking a few steps back to give herself room, she came around the corner at tired jog, "Help!" She said weakly, "Oh please, help!" she used her best damsel in distress voice, something she had perfected just as soon as she realized she could use it to make boys bend to her every beck and call.

"What's wrong?" One of the men said, all three of them having halted to stare at the anguished girl.

"T-there was someone after me! This big scary guy; I'm so glad you were here!" She pointed to the hall from which she had come, her pathetic expression faltering for a moment when she saw Aiko's dark hair jerk out of view.

Luckily, the men didn't notice and the one who seemed to be in charge spoke first, "You two go see what's going on, I'll take her back to the yard with the other inmates," he commanded his friends.

Quickly, Ty Lee realized the error of her plan, and did the only thing she could think of. _Hey if it works with teenage boys, maybe it will work with grown male guards,_ she thought as she let out a small, girly cry and fell backwards with her hand over her brow, pretending to collapse in a faint.

"Oh you're so strong," she wistfully told the man who caught her. Between the legs of the other two men, Ty Lee saw Aiko rush into action; her arms pumped as she soundlessly sprinted to clear the five or six meters between them. The face of the man holding Ty Lee had just enough time to start to turn pink, and his friends had just enough time to turn to each other with amused glances. The Kyoshi closed in on the men, silently leaping into the air, pushing off the wall beside her with one foot. She hooked an arm around one of the men's neck and used her momentum to force him to the ground. That man didn't have any time to react before Aiko dug her thumb and forefinger into his neck and he was unconscious. Ty Lee used her small window of opportunity to twist under the arm of the guard holding her and land two small hits between his ribs. He whirled around to grab her, but gasped in pain and clutched at his side. Before he could yell, the young woman punched him in the hollow below his throat, followed by one last poke in between the eyes.

The third man stared at the girls with wide, horrified eyes, frozen in place. His fire bending stance broke and he held up his hands in surrender. Ty Lee's huge toothy grin met Aiko's victorious smirk. With two more quick punches the third man was on the ground with his friends.

Only a couple of minutes later the guards were safely locked in one of the cells, and the girls were left to creep through the now empty main block, everyone having gone to dinner. Each girl clutched a somewhat oversized helmet tightly under her arm, _I guess helmets are helmets even if we couldn't get women's sizes, _Ty Lee thought. Another two minutes later the acrobat stepped out of her cell, fully dressed in her stolen uniform.

"This is so weird," she told the dark haired female guard waiting for her outside.

Aiko flipped up her visor and glanced nervously around the empty cell block, "I know!" she whispered back as the visor fell closed again. She groaned, pushing it back up, "If anything goes wrong we'll have to ditch these helmets ASAP; I can't see a thing."

"Now you know how I felt in all your silly Kyoshi armor," Ty Lee whispered back, eliciting a small giggle from her friend, "At least we're out of those prison outfits though. Red is _so _not my color." Aiko rolled her eyes with a smile that was returned by the acrobat as she twisted her hair up and secured it into a bun to hide beneath the helmet; the young lady had yet to see a single woman guard with a long braid and she figured it would make her too noticeable.

"Come on!" Aiko motioned for her to follow and let the visor slam over her eyes. After trying to race up countless flights of stairs without being too conspicuous or too loud, the girls finally reached their destination: the gondola deck. Ty Lee did her best wipe her brow without raising the face plate too much and as Aiko stood heaving beside her she scanned the platform for their other two friends.

"We should have picked a spot to meet," Ty Lee whined. The platform was full of guards milling around and waiting for the gondola to meet them and if Mai and Nishi were indeed wearing _their_ stolen uniforms, there was no good way for the girls to recognize them. The acrobat sighed heavily. The girls were among the minority of guards who were actually wearing their full uniform along with their helmets, but Ty Lee breathed a sigh of relief that the others weren't already in their street clothes.

"Yeah we should have," Aiko agreed, eyeing the crowd. "I guess all we can do now is wait, though."

"Yeah," Ty Lee replied softly, but the girls didn't have long to stand around.

"I haven't seen you around here before," a girl's voice came from behind them. It was one of the laundry guards; she had taken off her helmet, and it was propped up under her arm as she examined the other woman in front of her.

"Yeah, I'm kind of new," the girl replied. The tone was one that Ty Lee recognized instantly. _Mai!_ she thought, _maybe it wasn't too hard to find them anyway._ Her face spread into a grin but she at least had the good sense to stay put instead of rushing over to her friend; just knowing that Mai was there made her heart feel lighter.

"Wait, where's Nishi?" Aiko asked in a panicked tone.

"I'm sure if Mai's here she is too," Ty Lee reassured her as she eavesdropped on Mai's conversation. She felt her own heart sink back down, worrying about the second Kyoshi; now that Mai was there for the girl to focus her distrust on, she had warmed up to Ty Lee. She also knew that, however mean Mai acted, she would never leave Nishi behind if she had any choice in the matter. The gondola was slowly approaching and Ty Lee felt a strange mixture of fear about Nishi and anticipation of her own freedom.

"I haven't even seen you in the cafeteria though," the laundry girl said with raised eyebrows.

"I like privacy," Mai replied trying to keep her tone level, but Ty Lee's ears, which were trained in the art of Mai's feelings, caught a tiny timbre of fear.

"Is that why you still have your helmet on? It's so hot out here," the girl teased, though her joking voice hid a hint of suspicion.

"There you are, Ming!" a cheery voice called from behind Mai. The trapped mock-guard, as well as her two friends, watched another girl stroll up, helmet still firmly on. Nishi slid her arm under Mai's as though they were the best of friends, "I've been looking all over for you! Remember that guy I was telling you about?" she rattled on as she led Mai away from the sullen laundry girl, "Well I can introduce you on the gondola!" she motioned to the newly arrived teetering, steel savior.

Mai nodded minutely at the other two prisoners as the other guards began filing onto the gondola and they, near the back, had to wait their turn. In Ty Lee's constant thoughts and imaginings of the hulking metal beast, it had transformed from menacing location of one of her worst memories, to achieve almost supernatural, symbolic meaning. The gondola was now her way out as opposed to the reason she was here; it was the way back to her life, the way to help the world. The gondola was her salvation and she was about to step inside.

Then, it seemed to Ty Lee that the Universe decided to conspire against her and her friends. She figured that she had helped Azula fight the Avatar and his friends, thus disrupting the balance of the Universe, one too many times for the Spirit World to look kindly on her, and although her heart was broken, she somehow hadn't expected much different.

The laundry guard's lip was poked out in a pout and her glare was suspicious, "Wait, Ming is your name?" she called, grabbing Mai's shoulder and twisting her around. Mai's helmet slid around to block her vision and the morose young woman stumbled awkwardly into Nishi whose shoe caught on one of the loose rivets. The young Kyoshi warrior fell backwards, waving her arms in a windmill. She caught herself, but not before the oversized men's helmet she had stolen tipped off and rolled across the steel floor to land at the feet of the senior guard who was directing traffic onto the gondola.

Everything froze. The guards were staring straight into the green eyes of a clearly Earth Kingdom inmate. Ty Lee glanced at Mai, looking for a hint of what she should do; she was torn between tearing off her helmet and rushing to Nishi's rescue, or keeping hers and Aiko's cover intact. Mai's deep gold eyes glistened and her lips pursed together. She gave Ty Lee an apologetic kind of shrug and stepped into a defensive stance.

"Mai…" Ty Lee whispered, and she figured by Aiko's distressed face that she was as worried for her best friend as Ty Lee was for Mai.

"I knew you were an imposter," the laundry girl said with a cruel smile.

"Good call," Mai said dryly. There was another half a second of frozen time, before Mai interrupted it by ripping off her heavy steel helmet and launching it at the laundry girl. The helmet caught the girl in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her and destroying the eerie tranquility. Nishi executed a quick roundhouse kick to the throat of the man closest to her, one of the few exposed areas of the guard uniform, just as two other guards were pinned to a wall by jagged homemade stilettos through their sleeves.

_I can't leave without them,_ Ty Lee told herself as she watched the men struggle with the knives. She pulled off her own helmet and tossed it to Mai to use as more artillery. Her own thoughts were evidently mirrored by Aiko who had already pelted her headgear into the face of the senior guard who was now kneeling on the ground nursing his bloody nose.

Instead of throwing Ty Lee's helmet, Mai used it as a weapon. The young noble woman spun in a small circle to gain more force, cracking the helmet into the hand of the closest fire bender before he could execute his move. He let out a small exclamation of pain and clutched at his broken hand, rage flashing across his face as Mai used her final shuriken as a dagger, slashing through the upper arm of a fire bender as he lunged toward her and she ducked out of the way. He skidded to a halt and executed a sweeping kick which Mai easily avoided with a jump.

The girl's normally blank face was twisted into a small smirk of enjoyment with determination sparkling behind her eyes. Mai kicked the closest man in the knee to break his stance with a sickening crunch, and then with another rapid twist, smashed the steel helmet into the ribs of the enraged, injured bender behind her. With another grunt, he collapsed at her feet and helmet in one hand, jagged bit of metal in the other, Mai took a defensive position to ready for the next onslaught.

Ty Lee cartwheeled around fire blast after fire blast with each twist inching closer to the guard who was attacking her. One fire ball came a bit too close to home, singing the end of Ty Lee's loose hair. Her vanity fueled her anger and the girl dashed behind another guard, grabbing onto his outstretched arm at the wrist and by pushing her palm into the pressure point on the back of his upper arm, just below the shoulder, she twisted him around to use him as a human shield for the fire blasts. He screamed as, not only his arm was dislocated, but his opposite hand which was outstretched to defend himself was engulfed in fire.

"LI!" the woman bender yelled, panicking at having hurt her friend. Ty Lee pushed the injured man forward and flipped over him, pushing off of his back with her hands and landing on her feet in front of the distraught woman. With a well-aimed kick to the ribs and a chi-blocking jab to the chest the woman collapsed, and Ty Lee hand-springed over her fallen form to land beside Mai, standing back to back.

"Ugh, Ty Lee, I did that to distract them, you were supposed to stay incognito and get out with Aiko," Mai scolded, but her voice sounded more than a little grateful and Ty Lee could feel the Orange coming off of her in waves.

Ty Lee laughed nervously as she and her best friend were surrounded by a small circle of guards. "Hey, I didn't let Azula kill you, why should I let these guys?" she said, looking over the guards' shoulders to see both Kyoshis fighting fiercely; they were dodging, jumping, ducking, kicking and punching, combining their own training with the chi blocking that they'd learned from Ty Lee. Mai shot a small, thankful smile over her shoulder at her friend.

One man lunged forward, thrusting a fist of flame at Aiko, who swerved lightly to the side and gave a little tug on the man's arm, using his own momentum to pull him forward and onto his face. Nishi ran past her, stepping on the man's back and she and the other Kyoshi grasped arms. Aiko swung her friend around like a human pendulum to kick another man in the jaw. She landed on her feet beside her friend, both of them with fists up to prepare for the next attack.

"Surrender now," one of the guards commanded the surrounded Fire Nation girls as those from Kyoshi did their best to withstand their attackers.

"Ready?" Mai asked. Ty Lee nodded firmly and Mai tossed the helmet she still held high into the air. Unwittingly most of the guards' gazes followed the projectile. Mai rushed forward, sliding along the steel floor between the legs of the man directly in front of her, and slicing along the inside of his calf with her last shuriken. He let out a cry of pain, kneeling down at exactly the right height for a 15 year old governor's daughter to dropkick him in the side of neck.

Vaguely, Ty Lee's brain registered his scream, followed by another grunt from the man the sturdy helmet landed on. She placed both hands on the shoulders of the man who rushed her, performing her best circus leap into the air and flipping over his head. As she was directly above him, time slowed down and the astonished guard looked directly up into the chocolate eyes of the girl above him and registered the feeling of her hair brushing over his face. The small moment of peace only lasted as long as it took for Ty Lee to dig her thumbs between the muscles in his shoulders. His arms collapsed, suddenly made of jelly and the acrobat landed gracefully behind him. Then, with two more quick movements, she thrust her knuckles into the muscles above his hips on each of his sides. He teetered precariously before, with a side kick, she tipped him into another guard who was rushing to his aid.

One thing that did register in Ty Lee's brain was the sound of a female scream from behind her. She whipped around, fists still raised, to see Aiko being roughly shoved to the ground by one of the guards. He was handcuffing the warrior when Nishi landed an elegant, chi blocking punch to his deltoid. Her tactic worked, but only just in time for another guard to wrench her arm behind her back.

Ty Lee let out her own cry of pain when a fireball brushed her right arm, distracting her from the Kyoshis' plight. She clutched at her burned elbow and turned to see a man, probably not too much older than her, in a fire bending stance. Immediately, Ty Lee could tell that he was more of a threat than any of the others had been. Unlike most of the bending guards who had probably learned from a hole in the wall commercial street dojo in some small town or the colonies, this boy's raised fist and strong stance were more reminiscent of Zuko's elite training.

Ty Lee completed a quick one-handed cartwheel to avoid his next attack and landed in a crouch, still nursing her hurt arm. Out of the corner of her eye, Ty Lee saw Mai awkwardly try to dodge a punch to the gut, instead absorbing it in her kidney with a small cry. Ty Lee's eyes welled up with tears. _ We're losing,_ she realized, but she pushed herself into a sprint towards the fire bender. She ducked, leapt, twisted and flipped around fireball after fireball, and with a sweeping kick, knocked one of his legs out from under him.

He let out a mumbled, "Woah," swinging his arms to catch his balance. Ty Lee couldn't help but be reminded of one of her former best friends when the man shot a fire blast out behind him, propelling him away from the ground and into a standing position. The acrobat looked on, surprised, and gasped when he shot one swift kick of fire at her heel, knocking _her_ off balance. She tried to catch herself but only twisted awkwardly, straining her burned arm. The girl let out a small cry when the boy apparently rushed forward and a burning hand grabbed her from behind, stopping her fall. The hand grasped Ty Lee's neck and she froze. The young woman quickly tried to decide how long it would take her to block the arm's chi, and if that would be before or after her head was scorched off.

Mathematics had never been her strong suit and she wasn't done with her calculations when Mai let out another small scream as her legs were knocked out from under her, her arms stretched behind her back and the shuriken ripped from her hand; she was handcuffed and wrapped in a similar hug as Ty Lee. All at once the chaos seemed to die down. The guards who weren't too chi-blocked to move were slowly climbing to their feet, clutching at knife wounds or broken bones.

"Bring them back in," a cruel voice said from somewhere behind Ty Lee, but that was the last thing she had time to process before something very hard and seemingly metal smacked her in the skull and the acrobat's consciousness slipped away, along with all the hope she had left for escape.


	22. Free

**A/N:** Okay, so I messed up my flashback/present/flashback pattern again. Darnit. But after this one I will probably put one more flashback, then one GRAND FINALE! and then this story will be over. *Sniffle.*

Are you ready for a filler chapter? I hope so, cause since this one doesn't have any fight scenes like the last one, and no important points or revelations (okay, near the end it does get important again, don't skip this chapter xD), I think that's kinda what it is.

On with the sort-of-a-filler-but-gets-important-near-the-end chapter! Let me know what you think, please. n.n

* * *

**Free**

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Ty Lee slowly opened her eyes and the gleaming steel ceiling swam into view. It took the girl several seconds to process that she was not lying on the lumpy cot in her cell but rather something very soft. She ran her hand along the surface beneath her, feeling the fabric that was shockingly similar to silk.

Suddenly, a face materialized above Ty Lee. "Mai?" she asked slowly. Mai said something but it sounded like she was underwater and the syllables floated away before the acrobat's brain could decipher what they meant. Ty Lee tried to sit up but was immediately pushed back by the pounding in her skull. Luckily, the pain also brought her back to reality and someone seemed to turn the room's sound back on.

With a whimper, Ty Lee clutched at her forehead. "Where are we?" she asked Mai.

Mai opened her mouth to repeat whatever she said before, but the same cruel voice as right before Ty Lee was knocked unconscious, spoke first. "I'm sorry about your head, young lady; you seemed to have injured Xiu's pride more than his body and he, erm, overreacted."

Mai shook her head, looking more than a little angry, as she placed a cloth full of ice over the bump on Ty Lee's head. "Xiu?" Ty Lee asked, trying to make the room stop spinning. The young woman's heart leapt despite the pain in her head when, over Mai's shoulder, she spied two Earth Kingdom girls huddling very close together on another padded silk bench.

"He's the fire bender who apprehended you," the voice explained and Ty Lee leaned around Mai to see a hard faced man sitting behind a large desk. She recalled the fight on the gondola deck and the man who grabbed her right before her memory went black.

"Yeah; he burned her and probably gave her a concussion," Mai spat before her friend had a chance to answer. "You could have just told us _first_ so we didn't have to go through all the fighting."

"I apologize," the man continued, his voice sounding more kind than before, "That's what the guard, Shan, was supposed to convince you of but _obviously_ he was even more useless than I originally thought."

"Convince us of what?" Ty Lee asked, holding the ice to her head as she sat up glancing around the room to the anxious eyes of the Kyoshis, "I'm confused." She looked over to the unbarred window behind the desk, and could just make out the last of the sun peeking out from behind the horizon, and Ty Lee frowned, trying to decide if it was the same day.

"That we should just stay in prison and wait it out instead of trying to escape," Mai recited dryly, a strange emotion that Ty Lee couldn't quite read dancing underneath her mask, "Why didn't you tell me that SoupGuard was a prisoner and that you talked to him?"

"We didn't really have a chance," Aiko interjected from the other side of the room, "We only found out who he was right before we had to go meet you guys."

Mai sighed heavily and glanced at the man who Ty Lee now recognized as the warden, her friend's uncle. "Would someone please tell me what's going on?" she asked, frustrated as she ran through what SoupGuard said about Azula and treason.

"When you two were imprisoned the princess made sure that several of the guards, not just myself, would let her know about any sort of disturbance," the warden explained, "After my niece's fight I had her sent to solitary, only to be released once I was reasonably sure the war would soon be coming to an end and you two wouldn't be able to get into any more trouble." By the unsurprised looks on her friends' faces Ty Lee figured that they had already heard this explanation.

"If I had reacted to your escape attempt as soon as Shan informed me, while the princess was possibly still in power, someone would have alerted her and I'm not sure what she would have had me to do you."

"Oh please, she would have probably had us killed. I think we all know she was waiting for an excuse," Mai interrupted, rolling her eyes. With a jolt of confusion, Ty Lee recognized the other emotion behind Mai's eyes: she was happy.

"Wait," she said as something else struck her. There seemed to be too much going on in her poor, damaged skull and she was getting more confused by the second, "When Azula _was_ in power?"

"The war's over," Nishi said with a smile; Ty Lee could only assume that since the Kyoshi was smiling instead of sobbing that the Avatar had won.

Mai nodded, "It has been since the night of Sozin's comet, but it took a few days for all the messenger hawks to be sent and for the rumors to be confirmed."

"The country has been in a state of confusion over who's in charge; whether or not Ozai was truly overthrown, so I had hoped that your friend Shan would convince you to put off your escape attempt until we knew what was happening at the capital," the warden explained. _He knew SoupGuard was my friend?_ she asked herself, gently poking the tender bump on her head.

Ty Lee blinked slowly, looking from one happy face to the next. She reached over and pinched her own arm amidst strange stares from the other girls and the warden. It hurt, which meant she wasn't dreaming, but the pain in her head should have been evidence enough of that. The acrobat finally let her own smile start to peek through the fuzz in her head. "Does that mean…that we're going home?"

The other girls nodded vigorously but the warden was the only one who answered her, "I'm sure the new FireLord won't mind if I let you two out," he said with a smile that didn't look completely menacing, "Well, he isn't the FireLord yet, of course, but his coronation is only a few days off."

"Zuko?" Ty Lee asked, wide eyed. Her question was answered with Mai's slightly widening smile. _So he and the Avatar _did_ win_, she thought with a grin.

But then Ty Lee processed the second part of the warden's statement. "Wait, 'us two'? There are four of us," she pointed out lamely.

The Kyoshis both jerked around to look at the warden, recognizing the meaning behind his statement. "Well, I'm sure there will soon be an official decree regarding prisoners of war but until I receive the hawk…" he trailed off with a shrug.

"They're coming now," Mai commanded her uncle. "You owe us that much."

The stern warden sighed, locking eyes with his niece. Regardless of the serious situation, Ty Lee thought it was a bit funny how much of a soft spot he had for Mai; she could still remember Mai's birthdays when he would endlessly dote on her. Having no children of his own, Ty Lee figured Mai was his substitute daughter. Finally, the man seemed to have finished weighing his options, namely how apologetic he was to his niece and how much trouble he could possibly get into for letting the two extra girls go, and he inclined his head, signaling that he agreed to her demand. The Earth Kingdom girls visibly relaxed.

"Guard," the warden called.

The door to his office was opened and a man stepped in; Ty Lee recognized him as the fire bender, Xiu who she had fought earlier that day; or at least she presumed it was that day. "Yes, Sir?" he said and now that he no longer wore a helmet, Ty Lee thought he may have looked somewhat familiar but couldn't place where she had seen him.

"Go get these ladies their personal items," the warden ordered him. Xiu glanced around at the inmates, perplexed and shot a strange look at Mai before he bowed politely and stepped out of the room.

"What's gonna happen to SoupGuard—I mean, Shan?" Ty Lee asked the warden; it felt strange to her to use the man's real name.

"Well there's no reason to have him locked up anymore," the warden shrugged noncommittally and Ty Lee nodded followed by a wince, clutching her ice pack. She felt that guilty flutter in her stomach at beating up her friend leak away. _At least he'll be okay,_ she told herself.

"So, that's it then?" Aiko asked with a frown.

"I guess," Ty Lee said, glancing at Mai for confirmation; she shrugged.

"Weird," contributed Aiko.

"Yeah. Feels anti-climactic," Nishi said and Ty Lee nodded before she realized how much it hurt her head.

"Let's go home then, I guess," Ty Lee said, putting the smile back on and clutching the ice to the bump on her head. When Mai turned to ask her uncle about the war, and Ty Lee presumed no one was looking she pinched her leg one more time, trying to get rid of the dreamy, surreal feeling that hung heavily in the room.

* * *

"Oh, Spirits, Ty Lee _please_ move back," Aiko begged. Several hours later and the Kyoshi was sitting in the middle of the gondola and clutching her stomach. Night had overtaken the Island and it was spooky silent, like usual, as there were never any animal noises there. Aiko flinched every time the steel structure swayed.

Ty Lee looked over her shoulder at her friend, "Oh, I'll be fine, don't worry," the acrobat smiled cheerfully at her friend then leaned back out the gondola's window to look down at the boiling lake. The bump on her head and lessened into a dull throb and no longer made her feel like her brain was trying to break out of her head.

With a smile she recalled running up the steel cord and fighting on top of that very gondola and wondered how the aerophobic Aiko would have reacted if she'd seen that. _Probably not very well, and not just cause of the height,_ Ty Lee thought when she realized the girl she was fighting at the time was one of Aiko's closest friends.

The acrobat peered through the steam down to the lake itself, then off to her right where the lights that signified the opposite side of the crater were slowly looming through the mist. Her grin spread impossibly wide when the gondola broke out of the haze of steam and smoke and Ty Lee could see the clear, starry sky spread out above them. Something felt surreal about the entire situation, like she was outside her body looking in. _We're really leaving,_ she told herself with another huge smile.

"I think I'm gonna be sick," Aiko complained, clutching her hand over her mouth when a particularly strong gust of wind tilted the metal under their feet; but to Ty Lee the cool breeze felt like heaven after the nearly unbearable, constant humidity and high temperatures on the Boiling Rock.

"It's okay," Nishi told her, rubbing her back, "We'll be on the other side soon and we can go home."

For some reason that was a stab to the heart and Ty Lee's happy smile faltered. "PLEASE!" Aiko begged. She stepped away from the window, for her friend's sake, and sat down on one of the benches beside Mai, who was fiddling with a shuriken, wearing a strangely cheerful expression in place of one of her usual masks. The acrobat examined the new friends she made in prison, both re-dressed in their Kyoshi armor (after Xiu spent the better part of the hours before their departure searching through the records area to find where the Kyoshis' things had been transferred) but sans makeup. Something felt melancholy about the situation.

Ty Lee had spent every day with these girls for several weeks and returning to Capital City or the circus while they went back to Kyoshi Island just felt wrong and heartbreaking. As Ty Lee watched her new friends, feeling her heart sink lower with each passing second that the gondola gained altitude, she didn't initially realize that Nishi was staring back.

"You okay, Ty Lee?" she asked as she rubbed the back of her height-sickened friend.

Ty Lee's eyes widened and she blushed, realizing she'd been caught staring. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, "Just a little sad I guess."

"Uh oh, here come the water works," Mai said with a smirk, but her teasing undertone was evident and Ty Lee gave her a weak smile.

"What's wrong?" Nishi asked, her frown indicating that she already knew the reason.

"You guys are going back to Kyoshi Island aren't you?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Nishi said, "I mean, our main job _is_ to protect it."

"Mhm," Aiko added, her voice muffled by the fact that her arms were covering her head and face.

"Then I probably won't get to see you again..." Ty Lee trailed off, her eyes filling with tears.

"Yeah," the girl agreed sadly. "Where are you guys going to go?" she asked and Mai put an arm around Ty Lee's shoulders to comfort her.

"Back to Capital City," Mai replied, rubbing her friend's shoulder as Ty Lee tried to keep from crying.

"I don't know," the acrobat admitted, "I would go back to the circus, but I don't know if I can." _That's the happiest I've ever been, but that would be like moving backwards along my life's path,_ Ty Lee thought, mentally patting herself on the back for remembering one of Iroh's proverbs about life.

"What do you mean?" Nishi asked.

Aiko mumbled something unintelligible but when she realized no one understood her, she lifted her head. "Because of what you told me when we were mopping?" she asked, still clutching her stomach.

Ty Lee was surprised, yet happy, that Aiko remembered her little revelation so well. The other two girls sported matching, questioning expressions, and Ty Lee figured she may as well explain it to them. "Exactly," she said, "I feel like I have to do something to make things right for how selfish I've been my whole life. I mean, you two," she motioned to the Kyoshis, "You actually tried to do something to make the world a better place, but me, I was just selfish."

She hung her head and Mai sported a surprised expression, "Wow that was deep. Especially for you, Ty Lee." The acrobat smiled at her friend, grateful for the small joke to lighten the mood.

"I'm sure now that the war's over there are plenty of things you can do to make up for whatever you think you did wrong," Nishi offered and Ty Lee nodded, sullenly. _I guess she's right; there are probably a lot of people who need help, now, _she thought.

"It's true," Mai told her friend seriously, "Once we get back to the capital we can talk to Zuko to see what we can do to help, okay?"

Ty Lee nodded and stood up; the gondola had reached the other side of the crater and the girls began to file out through the door a guard slid opened for them. Aiko jostled past her friends and immediately lunged behind a rock, followed by wet, retching sounds that made Ty Lee grimace.

She took one look back over her shoulder at the lights, dimmed by the steam, which signified the position of the prison that was her home for so many weeks; somehow leaving the wretched place where she had spent the worst days of her life, (the anti-circus she sometimes later called it, to get laughs out of Aiko), was making her sad. _I guess it _did_ change me, and I made some great friends,_ she thought, finally turning her back on the rock as Aiko rejoined them.

"Well, I guess we still have the boat ride left," she offered, motioning down the long, winding trail that led to the dock, where a fire navy ship was waiting for them.

"That's right," Nishi said cheerfully and Aiko smiled even though she still looked a little green. Ty Lee turned away sadly and didn't notice the Kyoshis exchange meaningful glances; Mai did.

She raised an elegant eyebrow as Aiko silently mouthed a few words to her friend who shrugged, looking unsure. The Fire Nation girl shook her head slightly and turned around to follow Ty Lee down the volcano, her thoughts quickly turning back to seeing her boyfriend again, alive.

"We can talk to Suki first; hopefully she'll be in Capital City," Nishi whispered, grabbing the hand of the still nauseated Aiko and pulling her gently after the other two girls.


	23. Dragons

**A/N:** Hello, citizens of FFN! Sadly, this story is nearing a close. This is the second (maybe third) to last. I still haven't decided if I want to add a certain part or not...curse my indecisive nature!

Anywho, I hope you enjoy this story, and I would be very happy if you would review, or message me with your thoughts, whether they're good, bad or indifferent. Thaanks!

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**Dragons**

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"That's why it's called an act!" Ty Lee exclaimed, "Everyone's seen a girl on a tight-wire, but not everyone has seen an actual story played out twenty feet in the air!"

Hui made an unsure sound, "I guess, but let me get this straight. You want us to shoot fire at you?" The fire bender leaned his elbows on his knees, and glanced to his twin Lui, before his eyes landed back on Ty Lee, who was lying on her stomach, chin on her hands with her legs bent around over her head.

"You could get hurt," Lui added.

"Duh," Ty Lee said with a smile, pushing herself into a handstand, then over onto her feet. The brothers shared another nervous expression then looked back to the seemingly crazy girl in front of them. "Nobody wants to see _safe_! Why would anyone bother to watch a high wire act if not for the danger?"

"I dunno," Lui said with a shrug, turning to his brother who also made a clueless sound.

Ty Lee shook her head. "Okay that was just uhm…an…uhm, rhet-rhetamorical—"

"I think the word you're looking for is rhetorical," one of the twins told her.

"Yeah! Thanks. Anyway, that was a rhetorical question," she smiled brightly, "They come here to see if I'll fall! They come because it's only impressive when it's dangerous!"

"I guess you're right…" Hui looked at his brother who gave a little half shrug his face filled with worry.

"So you'll help me run it by Mr. Tsou?"

"You haven't even asked him yet?" Lui raised his eyebrows.

"Well, not exactly. But if you two come with me and help me tell him about this great idea he'll never say no!" Ty Lee grinned broadly. The night before she'd had a strange dream; she and Mai were on the playground at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls; she was on the monkey bars and Mai was throwing flaming rocks at her while boredly explaining how her tsunghi horn lessons had gone. After the dream, Ty Lee sat bolt upright in her hammock confused, strangely unsettled, yet with a fantastic idea.

During breakfast that day, Ty Lee was running over the final details in her head when her eyes landed on the fire bending twins. Instantly, she knew that they would be the best for the hatchling act that she was creating in her imagination. Both men were tall, muscular and covered in burns and tattoos. _Not to mention they have a fire breathing act already; give them a little scaly armor and they'll be the perfect dragons!_ she'd realized which had led to her cornering Hui before he had a chance to go back to his tent. He was the more down to earth of the fire bending brothers, and so she chose him to ask if he and his brother would be interested in another show.

Now, Lui sighed, "What did you want us to do then?"

"Okay here's how it goes!" the acrobat explained, plopping herself down to sit on the ground in front of the brothers, who were both perched on crates. Ty Lee held one hand at about eye length, "So, I'm up here on the tight wire, right?" the brothers nodded, "And down below there's music that goes along with our story. That's the only way to convey what's happening without having a narrator. And that would totally disrupt the story."

She looked at the twins, waiting for their confirmation, "Uh, yeah it would."

"Exactly! So then you guys are on either side of the wire," she pointed to the spaces hovering in the area beside her raised hand, waiting for a nod from the men before continuing, "And you two have this great armor that looks like scales! Lui you're in red and Hui you're in blue," she pointed to each of them as she said their name, "Cause you're the dragons!"

Hui smiled, "So you're gonna be Princess Da-Yun aren't you?"

"You know that story?" Ty Lee squealed, nearly bouncing up and down even though she was sitting, "Oh Spirits, my dad read that to me every night when I was little." Growing up, it had been Ty Lee's favorite story: A beautiful princess, Da-Yun, was forced into an arranged marriage with someone that she didn't love, and ran away from home to escape. As she's crying beside a cave outside of her village, two brothers, who were cursed into dragons by a witch, attack her thinking that she's another of the warriors who believe them evil and try to slay them.

In the fight Da-Yun used her agility to avoid the dragons, afraid of hurting them, and when she dodged one of the red dragon's fire blasts it struck his brother instead, mortally injuring him. Instead of taking the time to escape, the princess rushes over and tries to help the blue dragon. They then realize that she isn't a danger to them and regret attacking her. Da-Yun sits down beside the blue dragon, crying because she feels like it's her fault that he's dying, but when some of her tears land on his blue scales, he's not only healed but it's revealed his true form. In the end, this was Ty Lee's favorite part and each time her father read it she would squeal: they lived happily ever after.

Hui grinned wider, "My daughter loves it; she makes me read it to her every night, too." Ty Lee returned the smile. The acrobat knew that Hui would act in her show for his daughter's sake, just so she could see her favorite story played out in front of her, and Lui looked like he would go along with it as well, for his brother.

"Well your daughter has wonderful taste," Ty Lee giggled. "This is going to be the best show ever!" Then, without even waiting a beat for the brothers to gather their thoughts, the young woman rushed into action and sprung to her feet, "Come on; let's go practice so we can show Mr. Tsou!"

* * *

For the sake of her hands, Ty Lee had scavenged some leather gloves to wear during the show, and now, as she flipped backwards to avoid one of Lui's fireblasts, she caught herself and balanced one handed on the wire before gracefully bringing her legs around to stand. This was the part where Lui would shoot fire after her from one end of the tight rope, after he chased her up there; his fire blasts would work as a distraction for the audience as Hui climbed the opposite ladder. Ty Lee pretended to be afraid and backed up away from the red dragon, bending into the splits, to avoid a fireball to her head.

She pushed down on the wire with her palms, raising her body up and into a handstand and then bent her legs over backwards in an arch to end in a standing position. She twirled around, pretending to be shocked and scared that Hui was on the other side. After some more artful and death-defying dodging as well as a carefully caught and dissipated fireball on Hui's part, Ty Lee was kneeling beside her friend, pretending to cry.

"That was wonderful!" Mr. Tsou called from where the audience would sit. "A children's fairy tale changed into a circus act! Will you be able to do it for our audience tonight?" the man asked, excited.

Ty Lee glanced to her friends, who shrugged. "Sure," Lui said, smiling.

"Yeah!" Ty Lee chirped. "We need some better costumes though," she said, indicating the piece of rope she had tied around her head in a crown, and the blue and red rags that were, tied respectively to Hui's and Lui's belts.

* * *

"You're welcome to our caravan for dinner, you know," Hui said with a smile as the three performers left the tailor's tent, new costumes in tow. "We still have a few hours until we go on. I'm sure everyone will love to meet you."

"Yeah," Lui said, giving the girl a pat on the shoulders that nearly knocked her down. "You and Hua can talk about fairy tales together."

Ty Lee giggled, "That'd be wonderful." It had been so long since Ty Lee'd had a family dinner, and it was something she had truly missed; even if this wasn't her family, it would have to do. Ever since the incident with Cikuq, Ty Lee had kept to herself for the most part. She was still bright, bubbly, and friendly, but she made sure that she never made any serious friends, and here she was, being invited to meet the twins' families.

"Yeah, you shouldn't have to spend all your time by yourself," Hui continued.

"I don't," Ty Lee protested.

"You do," came a female voice as a woman that Ty Lee had seen around the circus rounded the corner of the tent and came into view, pulling along a soaking wet little girl. "A young lady like you shouldn't have to be alone all the time, you need a real meal in you once in a while," the woman explained to Ty Lee with a smile. "Go on and get changed for dinner," she told the little girl, who giggled, hugs Hui's legs and ran inside the tent. "Your daughter took it onto herself to go fishing," the woman explained.

The twins laughed and Ty Lee smiled. "I guess I should go with her next time. Ming this is Ty Lee, Ty Lee this is my wife Ming," Hui explained.

"Hello," Ty Lee said with a bow that was returned by the woman. "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too, Ty Lee," Ming smiled again and Ty Lee felt her heart warm, "Come on inside. You got the boys to join your show, you're practically family now!"

Ty Lee giggled and followed the family inside the tent. _Family,_ she thought, nearly whispering the word as she tried it on for size. She did have her own family, back in Capital City, but trying to stand out amongst six older sisters had felt even more like a circus than the actual circus did, and it was strange to have someone worrying about her. She knew that her mother loved her, but there was never enough time, and suddenly, Ty Lee missed home. _I wonder what they did when they found out I was gone,_ she thought with a frown, her eyes starting to tear up.

"Did you catch anything?" Hui asked, breaking Ty Lee's thought process. Ming and Lui were chattering in the background, waiting for Lui's wife to come back from setting up her stand, while Hui pulled his daughter onto his lap.

"Almost!" the little girl cried.

"Maybe next time. I want you to meet someone, this is our friend Ty Lee," he explained, pointing his thumb at the girl in question.

"Hi Ty Lee, I'm Hua," the girl said with a smile, "I've seen you on the tight rope! You're my favorite part."

Ty Lee blushed. "Hello, and thank you," she said, but before she could go on the energetic little girl was speaking again.

"How did you learn to do all those flips and stuff?" she asked.

"Practice, you want me to show you?"

"Yes!" the little girl squealed, bouncing off her laughing father and over to grab Ty Lee's hand. Before she could even make another move, she was being pulled outside of the tent. She shrugged a little and waved to the people inside.

"I'll let you girls know when dinner's ready!" Ming called.

"Okay! Let's start with some stretches, Pupil Hua," Ty Lee said, imitating the stern voice of her former school teacher, Mrs. Cheng. "Can you touch your toes?"

"Of course," Hua said, rolling her eyes and leaning over to easily grab her toes.

"Good! Can you do a cartwheel…" Hua started to scoff but Ty Lee went on, "With one hand?"

"No," the girl said with wide excited eyes.

"Okay! Let's get on that then. Make sure you keep your elbow strong, and hold your other arm in at your chest." Ty Lee demonstrated, landing gracefully, "Other than that it's just like a regular cartwheel, go ahead!"

By the time the giggling Hua was covered in grass stains, she had managed to complete a one handed cartwheel, and the adults came out to join them. Lui passed a bowl of soup to the girls before going to find his wife, and Ty Lee sat cross-legged on the ground sipping the broth.

She grinned, listening to the group's conversation, and yet somehow not feeling left out when she didn't have anything to say. Ty Lee was content just to teach Hua gymnastics and eat dinner with her new circus family.


	24. Honor and Bravery

**Honor and Bravery**

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**

The auburn haired young woman's arms were crossed over her chest and her face was heavily set into a glare. Ty Lee felt like the girl's turquoise eyes were boring holes straight through her skin as she looked the acrobat up and down. She took a deep breath and exhaled, slowly and thoughtfully, through her nose. Finally, she decided to speak, turning away from the Fire Nation girl and back to her friends.

After all of her pondering and consideration, Suki only had one simple word to say: "No." She uncrossed her arms and placed her hands on her hips then turned to leave. Ty Lee's heart sank; she figured Suki would say no to Aiko and Nishi's surprisingly ridiculous request, but it still hurt.

Ty Lee stood up from her place on the ground, where she had been kneeling in front of Suki, but a thought crept its way into her head. _What if you had given up the first time Mr. Tsou said you couldn't perform on the high wire?_ asked the thought, _And this is so much more important than that._ A little electric impulse made its way out of Ty Lee's head and forced her arm to reach up and stop the leader of the Kyoshis from leaving.

Suki stared at the girl's hand on her shoulder, and then slowly raised her head to look at Ty Lee, her green eyes filled with fire. The acrobat jerked her hand back like she'd been burnt and gave a nervous chuckle. Under the girl's (rightfully) hate filled stare, she struggled to get back the feeling of resoluteness and determination that had made her agree to come talk to Suki when the other Kyoshis had suggested it.

* * *

"_You said you wanted to do something to help," Nishi said with a smile. _

_Ty Lee plopped down on the small, uncomfortably familiar metal cot in her room of the ship and stared at the Earth Kingdom girls across from her; Aiko was perched on the little sofa against the wall and Nishi knelt on the ground with her elbow on Ty Lee's little dinner table. Mai sat in front of the vanity, boredly twirling a knife. Ty Lee could tell that the reason her best friend had popped up, saying she would let Ty Lee play with her hair like the acrobat always asked to, was that she was too anxious and excited about surprising Zuko at his coronation to be alone; but of course, Mai didn't tell anyone that, and Ty Lee had just finished up an intricate hairstyle complete with a little flame insignia comb, when the Kyoshis arrived to talk to her._

"_I don't think that would go so well…after, you know, what happened?" Ty Lee struggled. She knew, even then, that becoming a real Kyoshi was the most elegant and simple solution. She couldn't stand going back to her life in Capital City with her sisters and her parents there; she loved them, and she had missed them, but what could she do from her cozy little home? Marry someone her mother picked out for her and have kids just like Hsiu-Mei? That was the reason that, even though the ship had been in dock for several hours she had not gone to visit her mother yet; but Ty Lee vowed that before she left Capital City, no matter where she went, she would see her family first._

_Ty Lee also couldn't stand to lose the friends she had just made; if they were in the Earth Kingdom she would probably never see them again. _

"_Eh, we forgave you, didn't we?" Aiko asked, grinning. "I'm sure she will too once you give her some time." Ty Lee smiled back but recalled the angry, vengeful expression on their leader's face when she fought her on top of the gondola._

"_I don't know…" she said again, running her braid through her hands_

"_Well, when Nishi and I went to talk to Suki earlier, she said that after the coronation we're going back to the Earth Kingdom to help rebuild," Aiko dangled Ty Lee's desire to aid in the reparations in front of her and the young woman felt her heartstrings being tugged._

"_Yeah, you could do waaay more in the Earth Kingdom than the Fire Nation. This place is basically untouched," Nishi said with a shrug._

"_I think you should try it," Mai finally piped up from her perch in front of the vanity. She twisted around to face the other girls, leaning her arms on the back of the chair and her chin on her palm._

Her hair looks _so_ good like that, _Ty Lee noted with a smile as she eyed the curls that Mai had allowed her to hot iron in, but then her thoughts turned back to the issue at hand. "I guess…if you guys think there's really a chance that Suki will let me join," she smiled and the Kyoshis nodded vigorously._

* * *

Ty Lee struggled to collect her words together, but finally she said, "Please, Suki. At least give me a chance?" She tried to convey how sorry she was with that one look, and the warrior's face softened infinitesimally.

"Why should I give you a chance?" Suki asked, re-crossing her arms and looking down her nose at Ty Lee, although her eyes held an interested sparkle.

"Because, first of all, the reason that I fought you all of those times was because of Azula."

"That's no excuse, you—"

"I know that, that's what I'm trying to say. I should have stood up to Azula a lot sooner, but I was selfish. I stupidly still thought that she was my friend, but I was also afraid of her and what she would do if I didn't go along with what she said. I know that doesn't make it right, I still make my own choices, and I made the wrong ones. I'm sorry." Ty Lee paused, to see what Suki's reaction would be.

She raised an eyebrow, still suspicious, "Why did you agree to help her with hunting down Aang and fighting us and everything else?"

Ty Lee sighed, trying to find a way to explain that when Azula 'asked' someone to do something, it wasn't really a question. "She came and got me at the circus, and she even set the net on fire under me when I was on the high wire. I shouldn't have gone but I was scared," she looked at Suki pleadingly.

The intimidating young woman blinked thoughtfully and over her shoulder Ty Lee could see Aiko's face slowly changing into a smile. "So why do you want to be a Kyoshi Warrior?" Suki asked.

"Because while I was in prison, Aiko helped me realize something," Suki's eyes flickered to her friend, "That I haven't done anything worth doing in my whole life. In fact, I've done a whole lot of really bad things, and I wanted to do something to help make up for it. Now that I'm out of prison and Azula didn't kill me and the war's over, it's like I have another chance to make something of my life." The acrobat's eyes widened at her own speech; even she was surprised at how well she explained herself, and at how much she had changed from the silly girl that she was a year ago.

Suki blinked as though she was seeing the girl for the first time. "We don't normally accept outsiders," she said.

Ty Lee looked at her hands, feeling the tears well up, "I see." There was nothing that she could do to argue with that tradition; she _was_ from the Fire Nation and no amount of groveling would change that.

"But…" Ty Lee's head jerked up to meet Suki's reluctant expression, "I guess, since Nishi and Aiko have vouched for you," the other girls nodded, "I could give you a chance to prove yourself."

Ty Lee immediately hopped to her feet, "Oh thank you! You won't regret it!" she went in for a hug, without thinking, but Suki roughly pushed her back.

"Yeah, I won't hold my breath," she muttered before finally stepping out of Aiko's room, where they had held their discussion, not even bothering to close the porthole behind her.

Ty Lee had to admit that she was a little bit hurt, but this meant that Suki had agreed to give her a chance to show that she deserved to be there, so she didn't let it dampen her enthusiasm. "Why did she even accept me if she's so angry about it?" she asked, sitting down on the floor beside the table, still smiling, but confused.

Aiko smiled, "Do you remember what I told you about when Suki and I asked to be trained?"

"Yeah, you said that the lady in charge turned you away," Ty Lee tilted her head to the side as she folded up a napkin into a crane.

"Yeah, and…uhm…don't tell her I'm saying this, okay?" the acrobat nodded obediently, "Well when that woman retired and made Suki the leader, she promised that if someone ever came to her and really, truly, wanted to learn our ways and if she thought there was any chance that they could embody the attributes of Kyoshi than she would never turn them away," Aiko concluded with a grin.

Ty Lee's grin widened, "So that's how you figured that she would accept me?"

Aiko nodded with a smile and Nishi finally spoke, "As long as you convinced her that you could represent our principles: honor and bravery, then we figured she would let you train with us."

Ty Lee frowned, "I don't feel very honorable or brave."

"I'm not sure that you are," there came a voice from the hallway. Ty Lee's eyes widened in panic when Suki peeked around the doorjamb, having been leaning against the wall to listen. Aiko, caught red handed talking about Suki behind her back, looked like she was considering running away, "But coming to ask a favor of someone you know hates you was brave, and admitting your mistakes was honorable, so I didn't really have a choice; I _did_ promise, like Aiko said."

"Thanks," Ty Lee said, blushing and looking at her napkin crane.

"There's nothing to thank me for, I'm not doing this for you. Just don't let us down," Suki said, her voice not nearly as harsh as before. With a nod to her friends, Suki left the room, closing the door behind her.

There was a moment of silence in which Ty Lee stared at her napkin crane and tried to process what had just happened. _I'm going to be a _real _Kyoshi warrior this time!_ She told herself with a smile. Nishi grinned even wider, "I thought she was gonna kill you, Aiko!" she exclaimed. The girls all giggled, but there was a knock at the door and it opened an instant later.

This time, Mai stepped in, holding a hairbrush and a gold butterfly pin, "So, how'd it go?"

* * *

"The white represents humility and selflessness," Suki recited the ceremony lines as she spread the white paint over Ty Lee's skin and the acrobat vaguely wondered if it would clog her pores. _Maybe not,_ she thought, eyeing Suki's makeup and trying to remember if she had clear skin or not. "Do you vow to always put others before yourself?" Suki asked.

"Yes," Ty Lee repeated the way Nishi had instructed her. Sitting there in her only her sarashi and a wrap skirt, kneeling in front of the other Kyoshi warriors, not just Aiko and Nishi, she felt strange and vulnerable, yet extremely excited. The last time she had donned the warrior makeup and armor she didn't have any idea of the significance behind it, and now she was in awe at how much symbolism was really hidden in the warrior's traditions.

Suki set the white makeup aside and picked up a brush and the bowl of deep red paint, "The red represents strength and passion," Suki said drawing the brush over Ty Lee's closed lids and then her lips. "Do you vow to defend those weaker than yourself with all your heart?"

"Yes," Ty Lee said, and she opened one eye to peek. Staring back at her were Suki's green eyes accompanied by a frown, and she quickly shut her eyes tight, letting the girl draw on the black to emphasize her eyebrows.

After placing the bowl of black paint on the table beside her Suki turned back to the kneeling girl. "You may stand," she said. Ty Lee nearly jumped up to her feet, anticipating the next part; she was sure it would be her favorite, right after having Nishi do her hair, complete with gold accents and a headband.

Aiko stepped forward in full uniform, another kimono draped over one arm and a grin on her face. Ty Lee recalled Nishi's brief run through of the ceremony and extended her arms so that Aiko could drape the silk over her shoulders, pulling it tight around her waist. "The silk thread represents the brave blood that flows through your veins," Suki continued; she wasn't smiling but she also didn't look like she wanted to drop the paint and strangle Ty Lee anymore, so for now, the young woman thought that was good enough.

Ty Lee grinned widely as another girl named Takeko, who she had only been introduced to that morning, slid the armor chest plate over Ty Lee's head and secured the ties along the side, finishing the ensemble with a sash. Next, Suki opened one of two small boxes that were beside her on the table. Inside, were two gold bands.

After Takeko finished up the ties on the heavy gauntlets, Suki stepped forward and clasped the bands around Ty Lee's upper arms. "The gold insignia represents the honor in the heart of the warrior," Suki explained. "Do you vow to uphold all of our values and principles?"

"Yes," the cheery young woman replied, still grinning as Suki opened the next box and presented her with two gold plated fans.

"Then you may now call yourself a warrior of Kyoshi," she said, watching Ty Lee accept the fans, unfolding one to see it glimmer in the morning sunshine that peeked through the windows.

"Thank you," Ty Lee said, folding up the fans, putting them in her sash and then clasped her hands together in a bow, Fire Nation style, which elicited a small giggle from Nishi and even a reluctant smirk from Suki.

Suddenly Ty Lee was surrounded by a group of girls, welcoming her and asking her if she was excited to go to the Earth Kingdom. Ty Lee racked her memory, trying to recall the names of each girl; she was introduced that morning and it would be horribly embarrassing to call someone the wrong name. _Not that it would be hard, we all look the same,_ Ty Lee thought with a giggle before the air was ripped out of her lungs. _The same?_ She watched the other girls, laughing and talking as they went to have some breakfast and a bit of rest before Zuko's coronation; that wasn't until noon, the peak of Agni's power and the traditional time for all important Fire Nation ceremonies whilst her acceptance as a Kyoshi happened at sunrise, the traditional time for all important Earth Kingdom ceremonies.

Unable to help herself, Ty Lee counted her new friends and realized there were six of them and she quickly rattled off their names and counted on her fingers to be sure she wasn't missing anyone, _Suki, Aiko, Nishi, Takeko, Kimie, and Miya,_ she thought, eyes wide as she stared at her own fingers. Had she really gone from wanting nothing more than to escape one matching set of seven girls to deciding that her destiny lay with joining another?

"Wow…" Ty Lee said softly, "Destiny really _is_ a funny thing."

"Huh?" Nishi interrupted.

"Nothing, just thought of something funny is all," Ty Lee said with a grin, "Are you ready to surprise Zuko?"

Nishi just shrugged and Aiko replied, "We've never met Zuko, except for that one time he burned down our village."

"Oh," Ty Lee blinked, "Well he's a nice guy, and I bet he'll make a great FireLord!"

"If his talent at burning down little Earth Kingdom villages is any indication, I'm sure he will," Nishi said with a roll of her eyes.

"Yep, I think that's one of the qualifications for being FireLord," Aiko added, smiling and the youngest of the girls, Miya, giggled as she left.

"Exactly. I'll believe he's a nice guy when I see it," Nishi continued.

"Oh come on," Ty Lee said, pulling on the leather boots that would complete her uniform, "He really _is_ a good guy and he's nothing like FireLord Ozai or Princess Azula. He and Mai are gonna get married too, so you'll have to be nice to him."

"They're getting married?" Aiko asked as she followed Ty Lee and Nishi outside, "Why didn't anyone say anything? I mean, Mai isn't exactly a fountain of excitement, but if she was getting married, I figured she would show _something_."

"Oh, it's not official yet, but they will," Nishi raised an eyebrow and glanced at Aiko, who shrugged, and Ty Lee continued, "I mean, he's not gonna marry anyone else. She'd probably gut him."

"Now that, I would believe," said Aiko. Ty Lee smiled and pulled out one of her gold fans to examine it, flipping it opened and closed to get used to the weight.

"Far more plausible than your, 'Nice FireLord' story, I'd say," Nishi told her with a smile.

Ty Lee giggled, giving up on convincing the girls about Zuko. She flipped the fan opened and closed again, trying to perfect her quick draw technique to a soundtrack of teasing from her friends. Then, she caught her reflection in the gold surface, finally seeing herself in her new makeup. _I guess sometimes it's okay to be in a matching set,_ she thought, smiling as she flipped the fan closed and sat down to have some breakfast with her new family.

* * *

**A/N:** It's over! *bursts into tears.* Actually, i still haven't decided if I want to add that last bit. It is quite funny if I do say so myself, but this is such a good ending I just can't do it. Although, I reserve the right to change my mind at any time and for any reason.

I hope you all enjoyed this story, I enjoyed writing it, and this is your very last chance to give me feedback! Probably anyway. So please! I implore you! I'm trying to become a better writer here (as well as entertain you folks) so please tell me what you think I can work on, or what you think I do well.

Again, thaaanks, and I love you.


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